How to mine gold ?

Nowadays, large gold mining companies no longer use pickaxes and other manual tools to recover gold nuggets found underground and to remove unwanted particles. They instead rely on more productive methods, but which consume water or require the use of chemicals. When purchasing non-recycled gold, there is therefore a good chance that the metal has undergone one of the 3 treatments mainly used in the mining industry.

Gold extraction using gravity separation

Gold is characterized by its high density, in other words, it is a heavy metal, more so than other ores, sand and gravel. Since the beginning of the history of gold extraction, gravity has been used to extract this metal.

This technique is in fact the one used by gold miners in rivers, when they agitate their pan to eliminate unwanted deposits and keep the gold at the bottom of the basin. Of course, on an industrial scale, these are much more imposing tools and in a mechanized version which are responsible for extracting gold and other ores via 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, it creates an amalgam of gold. Everything is then heated, allowing the mercury to liquefy, while retaining the gold clusters, which can then be extracted. The process is rather simple, but it has several disadvantages: it offers a low yield (around 60% gold can be extracted) and it is very harmful to the environment. The ore amalgamation technique, however, remains inexpensive, which explains why it is still used in artisanal mines.

The cyanidation technique to recover the precious metal

Cyanide, or the salt of hydrocyanic acid, is one of the chemicals most used to extract gold on an industrial scale. To recover the gold fragments with this cyanidation technique, we proceed by leaching. This is an extraction using a soluble component (a solution based on highly diluted cyanide), which is added to gold-bearing rocks reduced to sand. We continue the process by filtering with the addition of zinc or activated carbon, which will allow the golden ore particles to be recovered.

It can be heap leaching (solution sprayed on rock piles) or stirred tank leaching (carried out in a closed circuit in tanks).

In waterways, we do not speak strictly of extraction, since the gold is not buried, but rather on the surface of the earth. If for leisure or semi-professional gold panning, the use of panning is the most common, this is not always the case. 

Washing ramps actually allow you to be much more productive. Installed in gold-bearing watercourses, they are designed to recover more easily and in larger quantities the flakes and nuggets of gold hidden in the alluvial deposits. It is therefore simply a mechanical method of extraction by gravity, with the current of the river doing the work.

In certain regions of the world, in Africa for example, but also in Guyana or on 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 recover it more easily. 

As technologies and knowledge in chemistry have developed, productivity and yields have increased considerably. Unfortunately, this also poses real threats. Man, animals, plants and our entire environment can indeed be harmed because of certain gold mining conditions.

The dangers of using chemicals

Whether in rock or in waterways, the uncontrolled exploitation of minerals involves releases of cyanide and mercury into the environment. These toxic products harm biodiversity, and not only at the place of exploitation. Used in rivers or in mines (apart from a closed circuit), this type of technique generates pollution in entire regions, since water contaminated by chemicals travels hundreds, even thousands of kilometers.

Not forgetting that mercury and cyanide are also very dangerous for the health of miners who use them without protection to extract gold. Chronic illnesses, cancers, neurological disorders are all possible consequences of exposure to these components. Added to this are the working and safety conditions of gold miners exploited in many mines around the world, as much in Africa as in Asia or South America.

The destruction of natural habitats

To get rich in gold to resell in order to make coins, jewelry and bars, miners must find ever more gold-bearing areas, while expanding and deepening existing mines. The lure of profit often takes precedence over environmental awareness. This results in mass deforestation, destroying the habitats of animals (and sometimes the men and women who live there), increasing the risk of flooding, etc.

Wastewater from mining and products used directly in gold-bearing muds and waterways are also the cause of the destruction of fauna and flora.

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 industry consumes astronomical amounts of water, electricity and fuel to extract gold. And we know to what extent these non-renewable energies are becoming increasingly rare, and at the same time becoming more and more expensive.

However, there are also many operations in which miners can work safely, where biodiversity is respected and where techniques that are less dangerous for the planet are used. 

Otherwise, another possibility is available to you: purchase recycled gold (after melting and processing the metal), such as that which makes up for example the lingots of 'gold available on the Gold Union online store. You may also find the collectible gold coin or the silver coin that you are looking for, or even investment coins to diversify your assets.