subject: Facts About Gold Prospecting [print this page] The World Gold Council stated that more than 90% of the gold that can be found in the world today has been produced in the mid - and late 80s. The four steps in the process of gold mining are: prospecting, mining, extracting and refining.
Back in the old days, the process of gold mining began with someone spotting a bright light in a river or in between some rocks. Now, with the help of technology, the process is more systematic. With the advance of science, geologists now how the gold is formed and they know that small particles of gold can be found everywhere in the soil or rocks but they are interested in big conglomerates. The yellow metal is extracted only form areas where there is a big concentration of these particles.
The process of searching for gold is called prospecting. Gold can be found in its pure form, that is with no alloys, but for the most of times this precious metal is combined with other alloys like silver. After successfully pin-pointing the deposit, scientists drill to obtain samples from below the surface. These samples are the analyzed for gold content. If there is enough yellow metal in the sample, then the mining company sets up the mining operation.
The way that the yellow metal is mined depends on the deposits. After this important aspect of the process is established, the mining company can choose to use an open-pit or an underground mine. These methods are used for the load deposit. This type of deposit means that there is an accumulation of precious metal near the surface of the earth or far beneath the surface. Another type of deposit is the placer deposit. The placer deposit represents the accumulations of gold in sediments in a stream bed or a beach. The extraction of gold here is done by scooping big amounts of sand, gravel or rock and mixing them with loads of water. The yellow metal has more density and because of this it sinks at the bottom and gets separated from the sediments.
This precious metal has always been an attraction for humans even from the ancient times. Now, the precious metal is even more so because of the profits that it can bring us.
