Gold Research Paper

Introduction

A mother and child are walking near a flowing stream thousands of years ago when the child spots a shiny rock glistening in the water. The child picks up the foreign object and for the first time in history, humans are exposed to this valuable resource. In those early times, gold was referred to as shiny yellow nuggets and is said to be the first metal introduced to the human race. Found in streams and dirt all over the world, gold has found itself in the form of crowns for kings to being stamped into a coin. But what else can gold be used for? Why is it so valuable? This paper will look at a few of those questions and will also shed light on the new 'gold rush' that is taking the human race by storm again.

A Brief History of Gold

When comparing a normal rock to a gold nugget, the only difference to the naked eye is the color. What makes gold different however is that in its natural form, gold is the easiest metal to work with. There are very few impurities within the makeup of gold therefore the smelting process is easier and returns more of its original features. Gold is generally found in nuggets and grains, which have loosened form ore that once contained it. When found in streams, gold is referred to as alluvial or placer gold (Coin & Stamp Inc, 1998-2012).

Gold can be found on the periodic table of elements with the symbol AU and has an atomic number of 79. Many scientists believe that gold is the result of neutron star collisions. From the ashes of neutron-rich explosions, heavy elements such as gold were formed.

(google.com/images/gold nugget, 2012)

The 1848 California Gold Rush

Some historians argue that the California gold rush was a mistake due to a secret that could not be kept. At the tail end of the Mexican War (1846-1848) a man by the name of James Marshall was constructing a saw mill for John Sutter in the city of Coloma, CA. Coloma was based on the American River. As Marshall was working, he spotted a shiny object that was obstructing the construction of the mill. To Marshall's surprise, it was a golden nugget. He rushed to tell Sutter and they agreed to keep the discovery a secret. As they continued construction of the mill, they bought more land along the river while trying to keep the reason for their purchases a secret. Needless to say, they slipped and so began the California Gold Rush of 1848 (The California Gold Rush, 1849).

How Gold is Mined

There is no real evidence of what methods were used back in 1848, however several of the methods that are used today may have been developed by the earliest know miners.

Panning may be the most recognizable method due to the fact of its manual process. Panning is the process of separating the gold from other materials in the soil. Other methods do this same thing, but they do it through a process with high pressure water and other heavy machinery. A person mining for gold dips a pan into a stream bed and removes a sample of dirt. By swirling the pan in circles, the heavier gold sinks to the bottom of the pan while the other sediments wash away with the water. This method is the easiest but not the most economical. Modern day miners use this method to determine if they are 'on the gold'.

Sluicing is a method of mining that uses what is called a sluice box to extract gold from placer deposits. Placer deposits are gold particles that have attached themselves to larger objects such as rocks or boulders. A sluice box is generally a man made channel that contains riffles set in the bottom. The riffles are designed as 'stoppers' for the gold. A sluice box is placed near a water source such as a stream at an angle where material can be placed at the top and allowed to run to the bottom. Any gold within the material will fall into the riffles and can later be extracted.

A third method of mining which is pretty popular on the shores of the Bearing Sea in Alaska is dredging. Dredging is a method that is generally used by small mining operations. A small boat equipped with long hoses and suction dredges float in shallow water while the hoses suck up sediment from the waters bottom. The cleaning process is the same as sluicing where the gold rich sediment is cleaned with water and the gold falls to the bottom of a box lined with riffles (http://www.mygoldpanning.com/).

Panning Sluicing Dredging

google.com/images/panning google.com/images/sluicing google.com/images/dredging

Gold's Value

Like any raw material, gold's price fluctuates. Most experts will say that gold follows the same path as oil in regards to how the price goes up or down. Over the years, gold's value has increased exponentially. As of 2:34pm on 2/24/12, a single ounce of gold will fetch a miner $1,773.00! Although