Gold Prospecting and searching

             Here is going to show you the basic theory and methodology you need to find where gold is present, how to identify it and what alternatives there are for the extraction of gold via panning or other. In short, this site will show you everything you need to know about gold prospecting. Although we'll explain to great extend the "how to" of searching for mineral deposits within ore veins, this guide considers free gold ( Gold Placers of various types ) as the main source of this precious metal. Also learn how to invest in gold via our other detailed guide.

Mining extraction and metallurgy of gold has been pursued with great interest since it developed intrinsic value as a result of its economic and physical properties, its decorative appeal and its scarcity. During much time gold has been the most attractive metal on the world, and still to this day is one the ones most fever and many developments and new ideas have appeared as a consequence of its huge value as an economic metal.

The gold mining industry has grown considerably, and it appeared to the writer that the present would be a propitious time to bring out some guides in order to understand gold prospecting and gold mining. What has been goal of the site is to make "Prospecting for Gold" a compendium, in especially concrete form, of useful information respecting the processes of winning from the soil and the after- treatment of gold and gold ores, including some original suggestions. Practical information, original and selected, mining jobs are given to mining company directors, mine managers, mill operators, and prospectors. In each part, will be found a large number of useful hints on subjects directly and indirectly connected with the gold mining.

All the information should be very useful and surely is original, and each reader will be able to understand the difficult task of processing gold ores found in the veins that bear it. You'll learn the art of extracting valuable metals from gravel placers.

Here, you can learn about metal detecting as well as gold panning. You get to learn why gold placers will form where they form. You'll learn how to look and how to find gold placers (that's prospecting!) and analyze it.

Those unfamiliar with prospecting and mining will find a great Glossary of the Mining Trade's Terms. The characteristics of an ore deposit and its minerals assemblages (mineralization) determine mining methods, extraction process (recovery methods & equipment needed), and the performance of all chemical processes involved in gold extraction. Thus, a good knowledge of an ore is required to develop a gold extraction and the efficiency of the process.

The gold mineralogy can offer the following variations:

• Gold occurrence, showings.
• Gold particle size and distribution.
• Type of gangue.
• Mineralogical association.
• Changes in mineral.
• Changes during the time.
  

Most gold mining hot spots

Starting with Ocampo Mine, Mexico:

The Ocampo gold and silver mine is located in the Sierra Madre Occidental, Chihuahua, Mexico. Owned by Gammon Gold, the mine spreads over 12,000ha and is the largest operating gold-silver mine currently in the Chihuahua state. The property includes an open pit as well as an underground mine.



There are a lot to mention too:

• Afton-Ajax Copper-Gold Project, Canada
• Aitik Copper Mine, Sweden
• Anita Project Niobium-Tantalum Mine, Canada
• Antamina Copper-Zinc Mine, Peru
• Argyle Diamond Mine, Kimberley, Australia
• Arizona 1 Uranium Project, USA
• Assmang Manganese Mines, South Africa
• Athabasca Burr Project, Canada
• Athabasca Oil Sands, Canada
• Atlas Wodgina Project, Australia
• Aurora Phosphate Mine, NC, USA

• Bachelor Lake Gold Mine, Canada
• Bajo de la Alumbrera Copper and Gold Mine, Argentina
• Balmoral South Iron Ore Project, Australia
• Batu Hijau Copper-Gold Mine, Indonesia
• Bayóvar Phosphate Project, Peru
• Bear Run Coal Mine, USA
• Bellekeno Silver Deposit, Canada
• Benguérir Phosphates Mine, Morocco
• Bingham Canyon Copper Mine, UT, USA  UPDATED
• Black Thunder Coal Mine, WY, USA
• Blue Ridge PGE Project, South Africa
• Blyvoor Gold Mine, South Africa
• Boddington Gold Mine, Perth, Australia
• Boliden Area Operations (BAO) Gold Mines, Sweden
• Boulby Potash Mine, United Kingdom
• Brunswick Lead and Zinc Mine, New Brunswick, Canada
• Buckhorn Gold Mine, Buckhorn Mountain, Washington State, USA
• Buffelsfontein Gold Mine, South Africa
• Buller Coal Project, New Zealand  
• Burton Coal Mine, Queensland, Australia
• Cadia East Underground Gold and Copper Mine, Australia
• Campbell Gold Mine, Ontario, Canada
• Cananea Copper Mine, Sonora, Mexico
• Cannington Silver and Lead Mine, Queensland, Australia
• Carajas Iron Ore Mine, Brazil
• Carlin Trend Gold Mine, NV, USA
• CBG Bauxite (Aluminium Ore) Mining Operations, Guinea
• Central Ashanti Gold Project, Ghana
• Cerro Colorado Copper Mine, Chile
• Cerro Matoso Nickel Mine, Colombia
• Cerro San Pedro Mine, San Luis Petosí, Mexico
• Cerro Vanguardia Gold and Silver Mine, Argentina
• CGA Mining Masbate Gold Mine, Philippines
• Challenger Gold Mine, Australia
• Charay Gold Project, Mexico
• Chassoul Gold Mine, Costa Rica
• Christmas Creek Iron Ore Mine, Australia
• Chuquicamata Copper Mine, Chile
• Cikoleang Gold Mine, Indonesia
• Coal Mountain Coal Mine, British Columbia, Canada
• Collahuasi Copper Mine, Chile
• Coppabella Coal Mine, Mackay, Australia
• Copper Mountain Project, Canada
• Cordero Rojo Coal Mine, WY, USA
• Cortez Gold Mine, NV, USA
• Crandall Canyon Utah, USA
• Crinum Coal Mine, Queensland, Australia
• Cripple Creek and Victor, Gold Mine, Colorado Springs, USA
• Curragh Mine, Australia

• Dawson Complex Queensland, Australia
• Debswana Diamond Mines, Botswana
• Diavik Diamond Mine, Northwest Territories, Canada
• Dolores Mine, Chihuahua, Mexico  
• Doolgunna Copper Gold Mine, Australia
• Doornkop South Reef, South Africa
• Driefontein Gold Mine, South Africa

• East Kutai Coal Project, Indonesia  NEW
• East Manhattan Wash, USA
• Ekati Diamond Mine, Northwest Territories, Canada
• El Castillo Gold Project, Mexico
• El Cerrejón Coal Mine, Colombia
• El Torno Gold Mine, Argentina
• Elandsrand, South Africa
• Equinox Minerals Lumwana Copper Mine, Zambia
• Ernest Henry Copper-Gold Mine, Queensland, Australia
• Escondida Copper Mine, Chile
• Esperanza Copper Gold Mine, Chile
• Ethiopian Potash Project, Ethiopia
• Ezulwini Uranium and Gold Mine, South Africa
• Fimiston Open Pit "Super Pit" Gold Mine, Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Australia
• Finsch Diamond Mine, South Africa
• Fording River Coal Mine, British Columbia, Canada
• Forrestania Nickel Project, Australia
• Freda Rebecca Mine, Zimbabwe 
• Galmoy Lead / Zinc Mine, Republic of Ireland
• Galore Creek Project, Canada
• Gaoua Project, Burkina Faso
• Garpenberg Silver Mine, Sweden
• Geita Gold Mine, Tanzania
• George Fisher Lead, Zinc and Silver Mine, Queensland, Australia
• Godfrey Gold Property, Ontario, Canada
• Goldplat Kilimapesa Gold Project, Kenya
• Goro Nickel Project, New Caledonia
• Grasberg Open Pit, Indonesia
• Great Noligwa Gold Mine, South Africa
• Great Panther Topia Mine, Mexico
• Greenhills Coal Mine, British Columbia, Canada
• Gualcamayo Gold Mine, Argentina 
• Hajar Metal Mine, Morocco
• Hamersley Basin Iron Ore Mine, Australia 
• Hard Coal Mining, Germany 
• Highland Valley Copper Mine, British Columbia, Canada
  • Idaho Cobalt Mine, USA
  • Isaac Plains Coal Mine, Australia
  • Isambara Gold Mine, Tanzania
  • Jacinth-Ambrosia Mineral Deposit, Australia
  • Jacobs Ranch Mine, USA
  • Jaguar Mining Paciência Gold Mine, Brazil
  • Jembayan Thermal Coal Mine, Indonesia
  • Johnson Camp Mine, Nord Resources, USA
  • Kalgold Gold Mine, South Africa
  • Kalia Iron Ore Project, Guinea  UPDATED
  • Kaltim Prima Coal Mine, Indonesia
  • Kangaroo Flat Gold Mine, Australia
  • Kanowna Belle Gold Mine, Kalgoorlie, Australia
  • Karara Iron Ore Kine, Australia
  • Kayelekera Uranium Mine, Malawi
  • Kemi Chromite and Ferrochrome Mine, Finland
  • Kendal Coal Mine, Witbank, South Africa
  • Kermadec Licence, Neptune Minerals, New Zealand
  • Kestrel Mine, Central Queensland, Australia
  • KGHM Copper Mining and Smelting Combine, Poland
  • Khushuut Coal Mine, Mongolia
  • Kidd Creek Copper and Zinc Mine, Ontario, Canada
  • Kimber Pericones Silver Project, Mexico
  • Kiruna Iron Ore Mine, Sweden
  • Kittila Gold Mine, Finland
  • Kloof Gold Mine, South Africa
  • Koffiefontein Mine, South Africa
  • Kupol Gold and Silver Mine, Russia
  • Kuriskova Uranium Deposit, Slovakia
  • La Colosa Gold Mine, Colombia
  • Lac Des Iles Mine, Canada
  • Langer Heinrich Uranium Mine, South Africa
  • Lihir Gold Mine, Papua New Guinea
  • Lisheen Zinc and Lead Mine, County Tipperary, Republic of Ireland
  • Lomas Bayas Copper Mine, Chile
  • Lone Mountain Porphyry Copper Mine, New Mexico, USA
  • Malmberget Iron Ore Mine, Sweden
  • Mantos Blancos Copper Mine, Chile
  • Marampa Haematite Iron Ore Mine, Sierra Leone
  • Marikana Platinum Mine, South Africa
  • Martabe, North Sumatra, Indonesia
  • Mayoko Iron Ore Project, Congo
  • McArthur River Mine, Northern Territory, Australia
  • Melton Project, Australia
  • Minera Los Pelambres Copper Mine, Chile
  • Minera Yanacocha Gold Mine, Peru
  • Minry Diamond Mine, Russia
  • Minto Copper-Gold Mine, Yukon Territory, Canada
  • Modikwa Platinum Mine, South Africa
  • Molejon Gold Project, Panama
  • Morelos Gold Project, Mexico
  • Morenci Copper Mine, Arizona, USA
  • Mount Isa Copper Mine, Queensland, Australia
  • Mount Isa Lead, Zinc and Silver Mine, Queensland, Australia
  • Mount Owen Coal Mine, NSW, Australia
  • Mowana, Botswana
  • Mponeng, South Africa
  • Mt Arthur Coal Mine, Hunter Valley, New South Wales, Australia
  • Mt Freda Gold Mine, Australia  
  • Mt Muro Gold Deposit, Indonesia
  • Mulatos Mine, Mexico
  • Mumbwa Copper Gold Mine, Zambia
  • Munali Nickel Project, Zambia
  • Murrin Murrin Nickel and Cobalt Mine, Leonora, Australia
  • Musselwhite Gold Mine, Ontario, Canada
  • Myra Falls Zinc, Copper, Gold and Silver Mine, British Columbia, Canada

 

Gold mining industry

   Gold mining industry encompasses all the activities from processes of extraction to the economical aspect of this industry. Some of the major components involved in gold mining industry are miners, machineries, transportation etc.

Economic aspect of gold mining industry

Market research and analysis reveals the fact that real price movements have a significant impact on the growth of gold mining industry.

Sometimes, the monetary value of gold goes down in value steadily and because of this reason, the productivity varies although the average productivity of gold mining industry over the last four decades remains very stable.

Financial aspect of gold mining industry

In most of the cases gold is used as a financial asset. Gold can be used as a tangible or liquid asset( liquid asset can easily be traded). Gold has a high value per unit mass, that is why it can be transported very easily. Gold is also used as physical possession. Some people purchase gold for saving it in the bank. 

          Occupation involved in gold mining industry

Most of the jobs in the gold mining industry are based on construction and extraction occupational fields. In every field, the workers should have some technical know how about that specific field activity.

The worker directly or indirectly involved with gold mining industry are working in the related fields like construction, extraction, production, and transportation. Some of the examples are:

• Supervisors: The duty of supervisors is to manage the miners and looking after the construction trade.
• Mining machine operators: They primarily deals with those heavy machines required to move the materials.
• Operating engineers: They are mainly engaged in construction equipment operations.
• Maintenance and repair workers: They look after the maintenance and repair related matters.

Some of other workers associated with gold mining industry are grinding, crushing, and polishing machine operators, helpers, etc.

Gold mining in Ghana

         Gold Mining is a complex process that includes a series of actions in extracting gold. Several techniques and equipments are used in order to precisely and accurately extract gold from surfaces beneath the earth, also known as gold mining. Large amounts of expenses are input into the method. However it is a supply and demand field that reaps thousands worth of profits. Ghana gold mining is the most popular known company producer of gold located in West Africa.

     Ghana gold mining works primarily on exploiting and mining in several areas as possible. The company in turn hires a series of companies to work in separate sections of the West African region. They all work with immense diversity and work on the exploitation of gold mining. Companies also seek to unify the mineral production bases within the country. The method involves hinging items such bauxite, manganese, diamonds and gold. The values are consistently changed within the policies of West African and can affect the gold mining market quite frequently.

In the Ghana gold mining industry, there were exactly 34 licences given to both foreign and Ghana gold mining industries. A small percentage of licenses were permitted to follow through mineral exploitations and refineries. Nonetheless, each company must under the Ghana gold mining industry must seek permission from the West African government. Much mineral exploitation is seen to be conducted in reserved forests.

The Ghana gold mining industry has various facilities it partners with. Each facility falls under one of the four available facility statuses. Each partner facility falls under either a premium entry, an upgraded entry, and updated entry or a basic entry. Each facility's gold mine must have one of these statuses. These status guidelines are also applied to any organisations or foreign companies that are linked with the Ghana gold mining company. The Ghana gold mining industry also gives extreme attention and work to projects within the West African district. There are three major projects on going at the moment, the Bogoso sulphide expansion project, the Tarkwa Mine project and the Wa project. The Ghana gold mining industry is well involved in various projects and organizations.

Ghana gold mining is an exceptional industry that focuses on exploiting gold mines within West Africa with the best possible equipment and techniques possible to the region. The industry focuses on relationships and partnerships with several companies and is simultaneously always working on different projects in order to better the Ghana gold mining industry and its customers.

Gold mining in Alaska (USA)

        Gold mining in Alaska, a state of the United States, has been a major industry and impetus for exploration and settlement since a few years after the United States acquired the territory from Russia. Russian explorers discovered placer gold in the Kenai River in 1848, but no gold was produced. Gold mining started in 1870 from placers southeast of Juneau, Alaska.

 

 

        Gold is found and has been mined throughout Alaska; except in the vast swamps of the Yukon Flats, and along the North Slope between the Brooks Range and the Beaufort Sea. Areas near Fairbanks, Juneau, and Nome are responsible for most of Alaska's historical and current gold production. Nearly all of the large and many of the small placer gold mines currently operating in the US are in Alaska. Six modern large-scale hard rock mines operate in Alaska in 2008; four of those are gold-producing mines (an additional gold mine suspended production in late 2007). There are also some small-scale hard rock gold-mining operations. Alaska currently produces more gold (in 2007: 673,274 troy oz from lode mines, and 53,848 troy oz from placer deposits) than any state except Nevada. In 2007, gold accounted for 15% of the mining wealth produced in Alaska. Zinc and lead, mainly from the Red Dog mine, accounted for 73%; silver, mainly from the Greens Creek mine, accounted for 8%; coal and aggregates accounted for nearly 2% each. Alaska produced a total of 40.3 million troy ounces of gold from 1880 through the end of 2007.

The gold mines in the world

      The value of gold is of course a result of its rareness and also of its interesting physical characteristics. Gold is a so-called precious metal, which means it does not rust (oxidise) at normal conditions. It is resistant against many acids and a good electric conductor, which makes it useful for electronic circuits. It is also useful for jewelry because of its inertness, as it will not oxidise or change in any other way. The continually high value of gold made it an important factor for money. Originally the most valuable coins were made of gold. Later, when people found gold too heavy and difficult to handle, paper money was invented, which was just a sort of paper representation of the gold value. A good example is the British Pound, which originally corresponded with a pound of Sterling Silver.

Gold is normally found in pure form. This means it is not oxidised and it is not necessary to process it very much. But the amounts of pure gold are typically very little as it is normally evenly distributed in the rock. There are several geologic processes which accumulate gold, most important for classic gold fields is erosion. The rock is eroded, the gold remains, and the small pieces of gold are washed into the next stream. But gold is very heavy, and so it tends to deposit in holes on the ground of rivers, a deposit called placer.

Other deposits are poly metallic deposits, where hydrothermal processes, often in combination with sulfuric chemical reactions, deposited large amounts of different metals in submarine depressions or in clefts. Typically gold is the rarest metal in the ore, but depending on the percentage and the value, it may be the most valuable part. As it is rather easy to process those ores in furnaces and separate the different metals, those deposits are mine since the early Middle Ages.

Gold is found all over the world. It is part of any volcanic eruption, though in very small amounts. Depending on the geologic situation, the mining is very different. Modern techniques and the massive use of machinery allows the processing of low grade ores with only very small amounts of gold, some Grammes per ton.

The most important gold producer of the World is South Africa. The Kruger Rand gold coins are world famous. The mines in South Africa can provide several superlatives:

• The East Rand Mine is the world's deepest mine, 3585m below surface.
• The Freegold Mine, owned by an Anglo American corporation, was until recently the world's most productive gold mine at 115 tonnes per year
• Driefontein Consolidated Mine has produced more gold than any other gold mine, about 2292 tons.
• The deepest single-drop mining shaft in the world has been sunk at the South Deep Gold Mine, owned and operated by Western Areas Gold Mining Company (Johannesburg, South Africa). It is located in Westonaria, Gauteng Province, South Africa. The shaft, with a depth of 2991.45m below the collar, has taken almost seven years of sinking.

Many gold mines are show mines, because they were closed when they became unprofitable. But there are still ores remaining in many mines. The rising gold price makes some of those mines profitable again. In 2002 the gold price was around USD 300, in 2005 around USD 700, and in 2010 around USD 1,370. As a result many mine owners rethink their decision to close the mines. Some have already been reopened.

Different types of Gold

Bars  :

       The most traditional way of investing in gold is by buying bullion gold bars. In some countries, like Argentina, Austria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland, these can easily be bought or sold at the major banks. Alternatively, there are bullion dealers that provide the same service. Bars are available in various sizes. For example in Europe, Good Delivery bars are approximately 400 troy ounces (12 kg). 1 kilogram (32 ozt) are also popular, although many other weights exist, such as the 10oz, 1oz, 10 g, 100 g, 1 kg, 1 Tael, and 1 Tola. 

Bars generally carry lower price premiums than gold bullion coins. However larger bars carry an increased risk of forgery due to their less stringent parameters for appearance. While bullion coins can be easily weighed and measured against known values, most bars cannot, and gold buyers often have bars re-assayed. Larger bars also have a greater volume in which to create a partial forgery using a tungsten-filled cavity, which may not be revealed by an assay.

Efforts to combat gold bar counterfeiting include kinebars which employ a unique holographic technology and are manufactured by the Argor-Heraeus refinery in Switzerland.

Coins:

        Gold coins are a common way of owning gold. Bullion coins are priced according to their fine weight, plus a small premium based on supply and demand (as opposed to numismatic gold coins which are priced mainly by supply and demand).

The Krugerrand is the most widely-held gold bullion coin, with 46,000,000 troy ounces (1,400 tonnes) in circulation. Other common gold bullion coins include the Australian Gold Nugget (Kangaroo), Austrian Philharmoniker (Philharmonic), Austrian 100 Corona, Canadian Gold Maple Leaf, Chinese Gold Panda, French Coq d’Or (Golden Rooster), Mexican Gold 50 Peso, British Sovereign, and American Gold Eagle.

Coins may be purchased from a variety of dealers both large and small. Fake gold coins are not uncommon, and are usually made of gold-plated lead.

Factors influencing the gold price balance

     Today, like most commodities, the price of gold is driven by supply and demand as well as speculation. However unlike most other commodities, hoarding (saving) and disposal plays a larger role in affecting its price than its consumption. Most of the gold ever mined still exists in accessible form, such as bullion and mass-produced jewelry, with little value over its fine weight — and is thus potentially able to come back onto the gold market for the right price. At the end of 2006, it was estimated that all the gold ever mined totaled 158,000 tonnes (156,000 LT; 174,000 ST). This can be represented by a cube with an edge length of 20.2 metres (66 ft).

At the end of 2004 central banks and official organizations held 19 percent of all above-ground gold as official gold reserves. Given the huge quantity of gold stored above-ground compared to the annual production, the price of gold is mainly affected by changes in sentiment, rather than changes in annual production. According to the World Gold Council, annual mine production of gold over the last few years has been close to 2,500 tonnes. About 2,000 tonnes goes into jewellery or industrial/dental production, and around 500 tonnes goes to retail investors and exchange traded gold funds. This translates to an annual demand for gold to be 1,000 tonnes in excess over mine production which has come from central bank sales and other disposal.

Central banks and the International Monetary Fund play an important role in the gold price. The ten year Washington Agreement on Gold (WAG), which dates from September 1999, limited gold sales by its members (Europe, United States, Japan, Australia, Bank for International Settlements and the International Monetary Fund) to less than 500 tonnes a year. European central banks, such as the Bank of England and Swiss National Bank, were key sellers of gold over this period. In 2009, this agreement was extended for a further five years, but with a smaller annual sales limit of 400 tonnes

      Although central banks do not generally announce gold purchases in advance, some, such as Russia, have expressed interest in growing their gold reserves again as of late 2005. In early 2006, China, which only holds 1.3% of its reserves in gold, announced that it was looking for ways to improve the returns on its official reserves. Some bulls hope that this signals that China might reposition more of its holdings into gold in line with other Central Banks. India has recently purchased over 200 tons of gold which has led to a surge in prices.

The price of gold is also affected by various well-documented mechanisms of artificial price suppression, arising from fractional-reserve banking and naked short selling in gold, and particularly involving the London Bullion Market Association, the United States Federal Reserve System, and the banks HSBC and JPMorgan Chase. Gold market observers have noted for many years that the price of gold tends to fall artificially at the start of New York trading.

Bank failures

When dollars were fully convertible into gold, both were regarded as money. However, most people preferred to carry around paper banknotes rather than the somewhat heavier and less divisible gold coins. If people feared their bank would fail, a bank run might have been the result. This happened in the USA during the Great Depression of the 1930s, leading President Roosevelt to impose a national emergency and issue an executive order outlawing the ownership of gold by US citizens. There was only one prosecution under the order, and in that case the order was ruled invalid by federal judge John M. Woolsey, on the technical grounds that the order was signed by the President, not the Secretary of the Treasury as required.

Low or negative real interest rates

If the return on bonds, equities and real estate is not adequately compensating for risk and inflation then the demand for gold and other alternative investments such as commodities increases. An example of this is the period of Stagflation that occurred during the 1970s and which led to an economic bubble forming in precious metals.

War, invasion, looting, crisis

In times of national crisis, people fear that their assets may be seized and that the currency may become worthless. They see gold as a solid asset which will always buy food or transportation. Thus in times of great uncertainty, particularly when war is feared, the demand for gold rises.

Gold Prices

          Gold has been used throughout history as money and has been a relative standard for currency equivalents specific to economic regions or countries. Many European countries implemented gold standardsWorld War I. After World War II, the Bretton Woods system pegged the United States dollar to gold at a rate of US$35 per troy ounce. The system existed until the 1971 Nixon Shock, when the US unilaterally suspended the direct convertibility of the United States dollar to gold and made the transition to a fiat currency system. The last currency to be divorced from gold was the Swiss Franc in 2000. in the later part of the 19th century until these were dismantled in the financial crises involving

Since 1919 the most common benchmark for the price of gold has been the London gold fixing, a twice-daily telephone meeting of representatives from five bullion-trading firms of the London bullion market. Furthermore, gold is traded continuously throughout the world based on the intra-day spot price, derived from over-the-counter gold-trading markets around the world (code "XAU"). The following table sets forth the gold price versus various assets and key statistics:

       

    In March 2008, the gold price exceeded US$1,000, achieving a nominal high of US$1,004.38. In real terms, actual value was still well below the US$599 peak in 1981 (equivalent to $1417 in U.S. 2008 dollar value). After the March 2008 spike, gold prices declined to a low of US$712.30 per ounce in November. Pricing soon resumed on upward momentum by temporarily breaking the US$1000 barrier again in late February 2009 but regressed moderately later in the quarter.

Later in 2009, the March 2008 intra-day spot price record of US$1,033.90 was broken several times in October, as the price of gold entered parabolic stages of successively new highs when a spike reversal to $1226 initiated a retrace of the price to the mid-October levels.

On November 9, 2010, gold closed at a new nominal high of $1421.00 in NYMEX.

Gold Historical Background

Gold History

     Gold has a long and complex history. From gold’s first discovery, it has symbolized wealth and guaranteed power. Gold has caused obsession in men and nations, destroyed some cultures and gave power to others. 

     Archaeological digs suggest the use of Gold began in the Middle East where the first known civilizations began. The oldest pieces of gold jewelry Egyptian jewelry were found in the tomb of Queen Zer and that of Queen Pu-abi of Ur in Sumeria and are the oldest examples found of any kind of jewelry in a find from the third millennium BC. Over the centuries, most of the Egyptian tombs were raided, but the tomb of Tutankhamen was discovered undisturbed by modern archaeologists. Inside the largest collection of gold and jewelry in the world was found and included a gold coffin whose quality showed the advanced state of Egyptian craftsmanship and goldworking (second millennium BC). 

    The Persian Empire, in what is now Iran, made frequent use of Gold in artwork as part of the religion of Zoroastrianism. Persian goldwork is most famous for its animal art, which was modified after the Arabs conquered the area in the 7th century AD.

When Rome began to flourish, the city attracted talented Gold artisans who created gold jewelry of wide variety. The use of gold in Rome later expanded into household items and furniture in the homes of the higher classes. By the third century AD, the citizens of Rome wore necklaces that contained coins with the image of the emperor. As Christianity spread through the European continent, Europeans ceased burying their dead with their jewelry. As a result, few gold items survive from the Middle Ages, except those of royalty and from church hoards.

     

     In the Americas, the skill of Pre-Columbian cultures in the use of Gold was highly advanced long before the arrival of the Spanish. Indian goldsmiths had mastered most of the techniques known by their European contemporaries when the Spanish arrived. They were adept at filigree, granulation, pressing and hammering, inlay and lost-wax methods. The Spanish conquerors melted down most of the gold that they took from the peoples of this region and most of the remaining examples have come from modern excavations of grave sites. The greatest deposits of gold from these times were in the Andes and in Columbia.

     During the frontier days of the United States news of the discovery of gold in a region could result in thousands of new settlers, many risking their lives to find gold. Gold rushes occurred in many of the Western States, the most famous occurring in California at Sutter’s Mill in 1848. Elsewhere, gold rushes happened in Australia in 1851, South Africa in 1884 and in Canada in 1897.  

The rise of a gold standard was meant to stabilize the global economy, dictating that a nation must limit its issued currency to the amount of gold it held in reserve. Great Britain was the first to adopt the gold standard in 1821, followed, in the 1870s, by the rest of Europe followed. The system remained in effect until the end of the first world war, after which the US was the only country still honoring the Gold Standard. After the war, other countries were allowed to keep reserves of major currencies instead of gold. The arrival of the great depression marked the end of the U.S. export of gold in the 1930s. By mid 20th century, the US dollar had replaced gold in international trade. 

    The American Eagle Bullion program was launched in 1986 with the sale of gold and silver bullion coins. Platinum was added to the American Eagle Bullion family in 1997. A bullion coin is a coin that is valued by its weight in a specific precious metal. 

 

History of gold mining 

   The tradition of mining gold started at least as early as the first millennium B C. The Champion reef at the Kolar gold fields was mined to a depth of 50 m during the Gupta in the fifth century A.D. The metal continued to be mined by the eleventh century kings of South India, the Vijayanagar Empire from 1336 to 1560 and later by Tipu Sultan, the king of Mysore state and the British. It is estimated that the total gold production in Karnataka to date is 1000 tons. period Romans used hydraulic mining methods on a large scale to extract gold from extensive alluvial deposits, such as those at Las Medulas. Mining was under the control of the state but the mines may have been leased to civilian contractors some time later. 

The gold served as the primary medium of exchange within the empire, and was an important motive in the Roman Invasion of Britain by Claudius in the first century AD, although there is only one known Roman gold mine at Dolaucothi in west Wales. Gold was a prime motivation for the campaign in Dacia when the Romans invaded Transylvania in what is now modern Romania, and their exploits are shown on the grand column in City Hall. in the second century AD. The legions were led by the emperor TrajanUnder the Eastern Roman Empire Emperor Justinian's rule gold was mined in Balkans, Anatolia, Armenia, Egypt and Nubia.The discovery of gold in the Witwatersrand led to the second Boer War and ultimately the founding of South Africa.The Carlin Trend of Nevada, U.S.A. was discovered in 1961. Official estimates indicate that total world gold production since the beginning of civilization has been 4.97 billion troy ounces and total Nevada production is 3% of that, which ranks Nevada as one of the earth’s primary gold-producing regions.