Gold Deposits

Abstract

Gold was among the first metals to be mined because it commonly occurs in the easily extractable native form, is beautiful and imperishable (a noble metal), and because exquisite objects can be crafted from this highly malleable and ductile metal. The earliest gold miners were the Sumerians, who were working deposits in the present-day Iran by 3800 B.C., and the Egyptians, who had organized gold mining on a significant scale by at least 3000 B.C. In ancient civilizations, gold was mostly used for lavish decoration of temples and kings’ tombs. Gold coinage appeared much later, around 700 B.C., and practically disappeared as a legal tender with the demise of the Roman Empire. Gold production slowed down in the Middle Ages but increased again with the great economic expansion of the 16th century. The ‘gold fever’ of the middle and late 19th century, which led to the discovery of many rich placer deposits in Siberia, Alaska, California, Australia, and South Africa, was probably triggered by the adoption of gold as the monetary standard by the British Empire in 1821.