directly involved, especially for their engineering skills in surveying and building aqueducts, reservoirs and water tanks or cisterns. There is some evidence that some of the gold was worked at the site, judging by the finished brooch shown above, as well as other finished gold products. A part engraved jewel has also been found in the vicinity. Such activities would have needed skilled, not slave labour. No workshops or furnaces have yet been found, but it is likely that both existed on site. Ingots of gold would have been easier to transport than dust or nuggets, although a high-temperature refractory furnace will have been needed to melt the gold, which has a melting point of . Pliny mentions such special furnaces in his Naturalis historia. A workshop will have been vital for building and maintaining mining equipment such as the drainage wheels, flumes for washing tables, shuttering for aqueducts, crushing equipment and pit-props. Official mints would have produced gold coins, a key component of Roman currency. After the military occupation the mine may have been taken over by Romano-British civilian contractors some time after 125, although the final history of the site has yet to be determined. Later history Following the Roman departure from Britain in the 5th century, the mine lay abandoned for centuries. There was a revival in the 19th century and attempts to make successful ventures at the site in the early 20th century, but they were abandoned before the First World War. In the 1930s a shaft was sunk to in an attempt to locate new seams. Falling into disrepair and unsafe due to flooding at its lower levels, the mine finally closed in 1938. It was during this period that ancient underground workings were found, and the fragment of the dewatering mill discovered within. The extensive surface remains, especially the traces of hydraulic mining, were to be discovered only in the 1970s by intensive fieldwork and surveying. Between 1975 and 2000 the lease to the underground workings at Dolaucothi was held by Cardiff University. Students from the School of Engineering were largely responsible for the renovation of the underground workings that were made safe for tourists. The mine was extensively used as a training mine for Mining Engineering and Exploration Geology students under the supervision of Alun Isaac, Alwyn Annels and Peter Brabham. Students from the School of Earth Sciences carried out an active gold