GOLD MINING

I was very fond of gold and used to wear lot of gold ornaments.  I gave up wearing these gold ornaments a few years ago.  Gold is a very precious metal and is always in the news as there are several millions who are interested in buying Gold both as jewellery for use by the men and women in the family as well as an investment.  I have been very fascinated by this yellow metal and thought I should explore a bit into the mining of Gold.

Gold Mining is a very long and hard process which is being practiced for over 7000 years in our planet earth.  In several parts of the world the gold ores is available deep inside the ground and people have to dig deep and bring the gold ores out.  It is basically a process of extracting the gold from the ground.  Gold Mining is always preceded by Gold Prospecting which is searching for the gold deposits.  Once the Gold Prospecting is done to look for the Gold Deposits and if the Gold Deposits in a particular place is confirmed by the Geologists and Experts then the Gold Mining will start at that site.

There are different methods like Panning, Sluicing, Dredging, etc. for the Mining Process.  The Gold Mining was done by people as part of their Treasure Hunt and slowly with the improvements in civilization the Gold Mining in various parts of the world was kept under the Government Control.  There are several Corporations which are involved in the Gold Mining business with the permission of the respective local Governments.

India is very famous for Gold as she is the largest consumer of Gold in the whole world.  In the 2nd Century AD people started digging small pits to extract gold in Kolar in India (Kolar is a very small town near Bangalore). According to some rough estimates more than 1000 tonnes of Gold has been extracted in Kolar Gold Fields.

When Gold is found in any region in the past there has been a Gold Rush.  As a small boy I have seen Meckenna's Gold and can never forget the two characters Gregory Peck and Omar Sheriff.

Gold is being extracted from the ground in several parts of the world including United States of America, Canada, Australia, Africa and China. Nevada in USA is said to be one of the primary gold producing regions in the world.

Being a finance professional I look through the annual reports of various companies around the world and one of the mining companies in Utah, USA has reported Gold Deposit in an area which is measured at 15.6 million tonnes of which 11.4 million tonnes is waste rock.  Mineralized material is indicated at 3.94 million tonees and the quantity inferred is only 0.26 million tonnes.   The Cost of Mining the Gold is going up steeply and at one stage some of the companies have faced operating loss as the Cost of Mining the Gold was higher than the price it fetched in the market.

According to an article published by the World Watch Institute, four southern states in India have together bought a whopping 70,000 kilograms of gold jewellery for Akshaya Thrithiya (a day which is believed to bring fortunes and well being to the family by purchase of the yellow metal).  In my opinion there will be atleast one kilogram of gold in every Middle Class family in South India.

Gold Mining has lot of negative effects on the environment and human life in general which is very important to note.  725 Million tonnes of waste is produced in order to get 2500 tonnes of Gold and the enormous amount of waste is contaminating the water and causing lot of environmental problems to our planet earth.  Mercury and Cyanide are some of the dangerous toxic chemicals that are being used in large quantities for Gold Mining.  Gold Mining has also led to the destruction and eradication of several species of birds and animals over the last several decades.

Gold Mining will continue as the craze of Gold Jewellery keeps increasing all over the world.  The yellow metal is also used in some industrial applications and hence that adds up to the requirement of Gold.  I sincerely hope they devise new and better methods of Mining the Gold without causing much damage to the Environment.

T.P.Anand
Dubai, U.A.E.
4th September 2013