Abstract
Gold is considered a store of value and has been a sought-after metal since the dawn of human civilization. It was known to Egyptians as early as 3100 BC. The value of gold was reported to be two-and-one-half times the value of silver in the code of Menes, the founder of the first Egyptian dynasty. A gold mine in Nubia in Nile valley is depicted in the Turin Papyrus Map of 1320 BC. Methods for large-scale extraction of gold were developed by Romans, who made long aqueducts to enable them to sluice large alluvial deposits for gold recovery. The feed material for gold recovery is now hard rock ores for most of the commercial gold recovery operations.
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Lakshmanan, V.I., Roy, R., Gorain, B. (2019). Gold and Silver Extraction. In: Lakshmanan, V., Gorain, B. (eds) Innovations and Breakthroughs in the Gold and Silver Industries. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32549-7_5
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