Carlin Trend pit

The USA was the fourth  largest world producer of gold  in 2009 with the most prosperous mining region located in the state of Nevada. Millions of years ago, hot springs laden with flecks of gold boiled up through deep fractures in the earth’s crust. But the golden residue did not accumulate in rich veins, instead, it disseminated throughout the sedimentary rock laid down by an ancient ocean

The vast bulk of this production is from large mines where the deposits consist of microscopic particles principally hosted in this sedimentary (or sometimes volcanic) rock. Many of these deposits lie along a few well known geologic trends, and the two best known are the Carlin Trend, and the Eureka trend. Its tiny size also explains why the old timers never found these deposits as their principal means of exploration was the gold pan.

Carlin Trend’s largest mine is the Goldstrike Property. The two o clock siren indicates that it is time to leave the pits so that the daily explosions can begin in the mine.  Before the dust has time to settle, routine work resumes in the pits, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  The best way to achieve high productivity is to use the most advanced technology, and the bigger it is the better.  These six storey high shovels can load a truck with four shovel loads.  Each truck carries 190 tons of ore equalling about 107 kilos of gold but what differentiates Goldstrike from a conventional open pit is a computerised management system run from a tower located on the edge of the pits.

What we are trying to do here is to optimise the efficiency of all the equipment we have to run the mines.  All operations are computerised; each transportation or loading vehicle is fitted with a computer which communicates with the system in the tower.

Cranes and giant trucks extract gold from Goldstrike mine. Around 100 kilos of gold per truck

This screen shows us which shovels are available and unloading areas to which we can send the trucks, we can see which trucks are leaving the shovels and those which are leaving the unloading areas to return to the shovels.

To extract gold from such low-grade deposits, miners must crush tons and tons of rock, which is piled into mammoth heaps and irrigated with cyanide. The cyanide percolates through the heap, extracting the gold. In the early days of the invisible-gold rush, a ton of ore might contain a few tenths of an ounce of gold. Today that minuscule amount would be considered high grade. Nevada mines are now digging up a ton of rock to get back as little as 0.025 oz. of gold which would have been considered waste rock back in 1961.”

After this process, the purified ore is melted and cast into ingots with a purity exceeding 92%.  Carlin Trend has become the industrial mining centre of America and has enabled the country to become the second biggest producer of gold in the world.

Timothy S Green, author of The World of Gold: “The boom in gold mining in the USA has created thousands and thousands of jobs.  Somehow it has enabled Nevada to be reborn as a State.  There is a whole life surrounding this industry which didn’t exist when I started being interested in gold in the mid 60’s.  In North America, you will find Homestake mine plus one or two small producers.  In Canada this industry lived off state subsidies and in the North of the Country we really struggled to keep mining towns standing.  Today, this industry has been totally transformed, it is alive and dynamic.

Prior to 1860 the Germinal system was adopted to create a monetary community between Belgium, France, Italy and Switzerland.  In 1803, the “germinal franc” (named after the month Germinal in the (revolutionary calendar) was established, creating a gold franc containing 290.32 mg of fine gold. From this point, gold and silver-based units circulated interchangeably on the basis of a 1:15.5 ratio between the values of the two metals (Bimetallism). This system continued until 1864, when all silver coins except the 5 franc piece were debased from 90% to 83.5% silver without the weights changing. It, however failed because these countries had to lower the fineness of their coins to curb the disappearance of silver coins.  There was no harmony between the countries.  The Swiss reduced their 2 franc coins and higher value coins to 800 thousandths.  Italy reduced their coins to 835 thousandths.  Due to the need for small coins, France overruled the Legislative Body and tentatively decided to reduce the fineness of 50 and 20 centime coins to 0.835 thousandths (law passed on the 25^th May 1864).

Belgium gold coin from Latin Monatary Union - Leopold II

The story began when Belgium adopted the French franc in 1830. Switzerland harmonized its currency to the franc in 1848 and Italy joined in 1861, both retaining the names of their national currencies but adjusting their values to match the franc. In 1865, this arrangement was formalized as the Latin Monetary Union. Greece and Bulgaria joined in 1867, and a number of states (Spain, Romania, Austria, Finland, Venezuela, Serbia, Montenegro, San Marino and the Vatican) issued currency following the conventions without officially joining the Union.

The basic idea was that each member country would have identical coinage made from gold and silver. While the names of the individual currencies were kept, the weights were identical, so 5 French francs were worth exactly the same as 5 Italian lire and could be used through the Union like national currency (minus a 1.25% handling charge). Each country could mint as many coins as it wanted, there being no risk of inflation due to the intrinsic worth of the metal. The following coins were issued throughout the Union:

Belgium used French gold for all its dealings and therefore made it legal tender in 1861.  The Belgian delegate remarked that because his country was situated between France, England, Holland and Germany it formed the perfect natural link for payments to these States.  Some were using gold and others silver.  The balance of the National Bank was suffering from the aftershocks of these actions which disrupted credit and trade.  Belgium, Italy and Switzerland therefore demanded adoption of the gold standard.  The agreement was signed reducing the fineness of coins worth less than 5 francs to 835 thousands.  The money supply was voluntarily limited.  Individuals could only make maximum payments of 50 francs.  Each country was also forbidden from printing more than 6 francs per capita.  A very simple system that Greece joined in 1868.

However, there were problems that eventually lead to failure. The exchange rate of gold to silver was fixed at 1:15.5, which soon turned out to over value silver significantly. The Union countries tried to unload their silver coins into other countries, so they could profit by turning them into gold. Speculators could buy 16 francs of silver, go to the Mint and strike four 5 franc coins which enabled them to go and buy a beautiful Napoleon. France’s gold was disappearing.

Germany shamelessly profited and benefited greatly from the situation.  German agents came to Paris and Brussels with silver ingots from the recent demonetisation of thalers and transformed them into 5 franc coins which were then converted into notes and then gold.  To put an end to these practices Belgium, France, Italy and Switzerland limited (1874) and then soon after suspended (1876) the striking of écus. A larger problem was that there was also a second set of subsidiary silver coins for smaller amounts, issued by each country on its own and not fully convertible elsewhere. Even though these coins had a lower silver content than the primary coins, Union members were by law required to accept up to 100 units of them at face value per transaction, very much a loss-making proposition for the receiving side. Also, while the ending of silver convertibility stopped the minting of new silver coins, outstanding ones remained legal tender. With the advent of World War I and the massive financing strains involved, not to mention war between members of the Union, the system collapsed totally, although it remained in legal fiction until the end of the 1920s.

The United Kingdom entered discussions of  Britain joining the Latin Monetary Union. The proposal involved reducing the amount of gold in one pound sterling by less than 1% to make one pound equivalent to 25 Francs and also decimalising the currency. During the period of the Latin Monetary Union, the United Kingdom was already in a monetary union with territories now commonly known as the “Commonwealth” The gold standard of the British gold sovereign existed in these territories until the outbreak  World War I.

Maurice Hall

At the age of 40, Abe Lee didn’t need to be told twice.  In 1859, he left his farm in Arkansas after hearing a rumour from miners working along the river and according to whom there was gold in Colorado.  In spring 1860, Lee finally found what he was looking for in the ravine of a mountain “It was full of gold and there were loads of different colours rolling in his pan. It was at that precise moment that he made the connection: I have all of California in this pan.  This was the name that was eventually given to the gulch, the Californian gulch.”

It took off like in 49′.  In the first year, the Californian ravine produced more than 2 million dollars worth of gold.  “This first rush was purely a rush towards gold sands.  A method which would today be known as a geochemical method was suitable enough to find gold.  It consisted of finding small quantities of gold using gravity by gently swirling the pan.”

The discovery at Leadville rounded up gold hunters from all over the world.  “Lots of people came from Eastern countries.  In spring 1860, 10000 people arrived trying to set themselves up directly in the Californian ravine.  The 8km ravine was rapidly split up into little individual concessions, most of which were no longer than 30m.”“Slovenians occupied the west of town, Hispanics were at Stringtown, the Swedes were on Chicken Hill and the Irish were on Sixth Street.”

Leadville 1860

Leadville is a small community of just over a square mile, perched some 3300m up in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.  Following Abe Lee’s discovery, the thousands of miners that flocked to this remote camp soon realized that the area was also rich in other types of deposits.  Over the next thirty years, more than a million mine pits were dug from which gold, silver, zinc and the metal which gave the town its name in 1878, lead, were extracted. “It was a primitive and disorganised community.  I remember reading an article published in 1893 which said that Leadville was the most famous mining community the world has ever known. ““Leadville was famous for its games rooms and brothels and for every church or school there were 10 to 20 bars and brothels.”

One of the miners that set out to pursue his dreams in Leadville was none other than Thomas Walsh, an Irish immigrant who arrived in 1879 to look for gold.  For fifteen years, Walsh dug and when he wasn’t digging he took care of a bar in Leadville.  Before that he worked in one of the many metal refineries that breathed life into the region’s mining industry. In 1895 Thomas Walsh literally fell upon a gold mine.  “It was quite an extraordinary bit of luck that only happens once in your life because the place just above where this rich mass of gold deposits was located had previously been excavated fifteen times by miners who were convinced that they were going to find silver.  They committed the error of not sampling the minerals that were in range of their picks.  When he himself took samples and tried them he found that the ore had a very high concentration of gold”.

In 1879, silver was discovered in Leadville.  Hundreds of mines literally sprang up overnight.  However, during the 1880’s, silver progressively dropped in value as countries around the world moved on to a new standard, the gold standard.  The death of this once precious metal ended in total failure.  Lots of silver concessions were automatically abandoned.  In the months that followed, Walsh discretely purchased 50 deserted concessions scattered amongst the hills surrounding Leadville.  He carried out consolidation work and inspired by a small rocky mountain known as Raven, he decided to call his minefield Camp Bird Mine. He was however one of the exceptions.  If some found fortune in Leadville, most didn’t find anything or very little gold.  “Life in these mining communities was very, very difficult.  Everyone thought that with the next shovel full they would hit the jackpot, but sadly it happened very rarely.”

Contestoga wagon

“Most of them returned home on board Conestoga wagons which were typical of the time.  More often than not they painted little mottos by way of a coat of arms on the wagon’s canvas: “money or nothing”.  And when they returned home to the east they often said that they had been plucked by God”.

As the nineteenth century drew to a close, the chances of making a fortune through gold were dwindling.  The last opportunity for prospectors was in Alaska.  When gold was discovered in Klondike River in 1896, thousands of miners sailed there.  The ticket to travel there on a steamer, which had previously cost 50 dollars, rose to 1000 dollars.  But the boat was only part of the journey.  Prospectors  then had to follow a long route strewn with obstacles across one of the most hostile terrains in the world.

Canadian Mounties also worked to prevent people embarking on the adventure without at least a years worth of food.  A Major of the Mounties wrote at the time: “It’s hard to imagine such a scene of ruin and desolation, thousands of horses lay dead littered across the road, sometimes whole groups.  They were lying  their harnesses, their saddles, their loads which had fallen with them from the top of the rocks.”

But prospectors continued on their way unabated.  Because so much gold had been found in so many different areas they remained convinced that it was only a matter of time before the next big discovery.

“People used to wonder where the next rush would be.  California quickly reached saturation point but there were many other stories in the 1850’s and 60’s.  It was suddenly announced that there was gold in Seattle or elsewhere, absolutely everyone would rush  to these places and more often than not there was nothing to be found.”

The men who made the great gold rushes of the nineteenth century were strong, strapping solitary individuals with huge dreams.  They panned for gold that changed history in  flakes, grains and sometimes whole nuggets.  Every time an announcement was made that gold had been discovered from California to Australia via Alaska, the world rushed to filter rivers, but rivers are not the only hiding place for gold.  People soon realised that gold was also hiden in the surrounding hills.  Unfortunately, it takes more than just a shovel and pan to get to it.

Maurice hall

Gold mining operations soon went through an industrial revolution.  The gold rush in Australia resulted in the largest nugget ever being found, a 70kg block of gold.  At the end of Winter and beginning of Spring in 1876, whilst General George.A.Custer was preparing for his infamous meeting with Little Big Horn, brothers Fred and Moses Manuel began looking for gold in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Born in Quebec, the Manuel brothers spent most of their lives surveying the West of the USA in the unlikely search for gold.  Like many before them, they had heard rumours that General Custer’s geologists had found gold in the Black Hills.  On the 9th April 1876, the two brothers discovered what they were looking for in a known area called Bobtail ravine.  Moses relates their discovery in his diary: “finally the snow began to melt on the hill, water drained from the filter through the pipe.  There, I saw quartz! I took hold of a pick to try and break off a block but it was very compact.  I still managed to break off a piece and returned to camp to crush it and wash it.  It was full of gold”

Homestake gold mine in 1877

In just a few months, Fred and Moses Manuel extracted five thousand dollars worth of gold, a small fortune at the time.  One year later, the two brothers sold their mine for 45000 dollars.  The deposit became one of the first properties owned by the Homestake Mining Company.  The creation of the Homestake mine signalled a revolution in gold mining operations.  In the centuries that followed, the solitary gold hunter equipped with just one pan and one shovel gradually gave way to larger companies using new technologies.  One of the most efficient methods but also the most destructive for the environment consisted of hydraulic mining operations.  It consists of sending water through an enormous hose nozzle and projecting it with extreme force against a rock to break off large pieces.  By literally sweeping away the quartz, gold appears.”

The water canons destroy millions of cubic metres of earth and rock on hillsides, using pressures which could mutilate or kill a man from 30 metres.  In less than a day, a clean sweep can be made of a riverbed which would take an army of prospectors armed with shovels and pans a month to sift through.  Old mining sites dating from the first gold rush came back to life.

Another aid came in 1889 for mining companies in the form of cyanide, a deadly poison for humans but a great help for industry.  “We realised that cyanide had the power to dissolve rock around gold.  It became very economic for industry to use large scale techniques and therefore recover small deposits of gold.” Gold cyanidation  is a metelurgical technique for extracting gold from low-grade ore by converting the gold to water soluble aurocyanide metallic complex ions. It is the most commonly used process for gold extraction. Due to the highly poisonous nature of cyanide, the process is highly controversial and its usage is now banned in a number of countries and territories.

These technological advances turned the mania at Homestake into the richest mine in US history.  For over a century it has continued to produce gold in regular quantities.  It represents 10% of all gold extracted from mines in America.  Fred and Moses Manuel discovered one of the largest reserves of gold scattered across Western America.  Many years later, geologists discovered a gold field of more than 1600 metres deep and 1600 metres long in the mountains of Nevada, but the gold remains invisible to the naked eye

Today the mining company Barrick uses innovative techniques to recover microscopic grains of gold just a few thousandths of a millimetre in size.  To see them, they need to be enlarged about 2000 times.

After the discovery of deposits in the Carlin region as well as the implementation of modern technologies, the US has become the second largest gold producer in the world.

The discovery of the largest gold reserves are located in one of the most profitable and outstanding geological environments on Earth.  Thieves know that the gold is capable of revealing their fingerprints using a new type of chemical analysis which is most notably capable of precisely indicating where the metal comes from.

All the gold extracted in the world would fit into a 20x 20 metre cube

Gold’s lustre has bewitched man since it was first extracted over 6000 years ago.  What’s more, it doesn’t rust, oxidize or tarnish.  It is estimated that all the gold ever extracted would only form a cube of around 20 metres on each side, an eighth of this football pitch.  And gold has aroused human emotion like no other material. On the busiest metal market in the world, the New York Stock Exchange, gold is always exciting.

Georges Gero, Commodity Exchange New York: “Americans have been fascinated by gold as they have learned that during the depression a kilo of gold, which is thirty three ounces, would pay for a Ford, Chevrolet or Plymouth and that today a kilo of gold would in the same way pay for a new Ford, or Chevrolet or Plymouth, therefore its value has been maintained over the years.”

Timothy S. Green, author of “The World of Gold”: “If you made orange juice, you drink it and then it’s gone.  In the same way if you made any type of food, you eat it and it’s gone.  Gold on the other hand continues.  Year on year, the constant demand for gold exceeds new arrivals from the mines.  In a way, it is a good reason to be operating a gold mine today, there is constant demand for your product.”