How to extract gold?

Today, large gold mining companies no longer use picks and other hand tools to recover gold nuggets from underground and remove unwanted particles. Instead, they rely on more productive methods, which are water-intensive or require the use of chemicals. When purchasing non-recycled gold, there is a good chance that the metal has undergone one of the three main treatments used in the mining industry.

Gold Extraction Using Gravity Separation

Gold is characterized by its high density, meaning it is a heavy metal, heavier than other ores, sand, and gravel. Since the beginning of gold mining, gravity has been used to extract this metal.

This technique is actually the one used by gold miners in rivers, when they shake their pans to remove unwanted deposits and keep the gold at the bottom of the basin. Of course, on an industrial scale, much larger, mechanized tools are used to extract gold and other minerals using the gravity method.

The amalgamation method for extracting gold from the earth

In the mining industry, mercury is also used to recover the precious metal. By mixing mercury with gold-bearing rocks, a gold amalgam is created. The mixture is then heated, allowing the mercury to liquefy, while preserving the gold deposits, which can then be extracted. The process is relatively simple, but it has several drawbacks: it offers a low yield (about 60% of gold can be extracted) and it is very harmful to the environment. However, the technique of amalgamating ores remains inexpensive, which is why it is still used in artisanal mines.

The Cyanidation Technique to Recover the Precious Metal

Cyanide, or hydrocyanic acid salt, is one of the most widely used chemicals for industrial gold extraction. To recover gold fragments using this cyanidation technique, a leaching process is used. This extraction involves the use of a soluble component (a highly diluted cyanide solution) added to gold-bearing rocks reduced to sand. The process is continued by filtering with the addition of zinc or activated carbon, which allows the recovery of gold ore particles.

This can involve heap leaching (solution sprayed onto rock piles) or stirred tank leaching (carried out in a closed circuit in tanks).

In waterways, we don't strictly speak of extraction, since the gold is not buried, but rather on the surface of the earth. While panning is most common for recreational or semi-professional gold mining, this is not always the case.

Washing ramps actually allow for much greater productivity. Installed in gold-bearing streams, they are designed to more easily and in greater quantities recover the gold flakes and nuggets hidden in the alluvium. It is therefore simply a mechanical method of extraction by gravity, with the river current doing the work.

In some regions of the world, such as Africa, but also in Guyana and other continents, mercury is also regularly used to extract gold from rivers. Using the same chemical reaction as in gold mines, the gold is then amalgamated to make it easier to recover.

As technology and chemical knowledge have developed, productivity and yields have increased considerably. Unfortunately, this also brings real threats. Humans, animals, plants, and our entire environment can indeed be harmed by certain gold mining conditions.

The Dangers of Using Chemicals

Whether in rock or in waterways, uncontrolled mineral exploitation results in the release of cyanide and mercury into the environment. These toxic products harm biodiversity, and not just at the mining site. Used in rivers or mines (outside of a closed circuit), this type of technique generates pollution in entire regions, since water contaminated by chemicals travels hundreds, even thousands of kilometers.

Not to mention that mercury and cyanide are also very dangerous to the health of miners who use them unprotected to extract gold. Chronic illnesses, cancers, and neurological disorders are all possible consequences of exposure to these compounds. Added to this are the working and safety conditions of gold miners exploited in many mines around the world, in Africa, Asia, and South America.

The destruction of natural habitats

To generate gold to resell and make coins, jewelry, and ingots, miners must constantly find more gold-bearing areas, while expanding and deepening existing mines. Profit often trumps environmental awareness. The result is mass deforestation, destroying the habitats of animals (and sometimes the people who live there), increasing the risk of flooding, and more.

Wastewater from mining and products used directly in gold-bearing mud and streams also cause the destruction of flora and fauna.

Water and Energy Consumption during the Extraction Process

Depending on the methods used and the gold content of the rocks, it takes a ton of ore to extract from one gram to one ounce of gold. This not only generates mining waste, but also means that the gold mining industry consumes astronomical amounts of water, electricity, and fuel to extract gold. And we know how these non-renewable energies are becoming increasingly scarce, and at the same time, increasingly expensive.

However, there are also many mines where miners can work safely, where biodiversity is respected and where techniques that are less harmful to the planet are used.

Alternatively, another option is available to you: purchasing recycled gold (after melting and processing the metal), such as the one that makes up, for example, the gold ingots available on the Gold Union online store. You may also find the gold coin or the silver coin you are looking for, or even investment coins to diversify your assets.