Gold Rush

GOLD RUSH
P R E S E N T E D B Y H A R K AV E N K O I N N A
GOLD RUSH
• A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery
of gold—sometimes accompanied by
other precious metals and
rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush
of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold
rushes took place in the 19th century in
Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Canada,
South Africa, and the United States, while
smaller gold rushes took place elsewhere.
GOLD RUSH
• In the 19th century, the wealth that resulted
was distributed widely because of reduced
migration costs and low barriers to entry.
While gold mining itself proved
unprofitable for most diggers and mine
owners, some people made large fortunes,
and merchants and transportation facilities
made large profits. The resulting increase
in the world's gold supply stimulated global
trade and investment. Historians have
written extensively about the mass
migration, trade, colonization, and
environmental history associated with gold
rushes.[2]
GOLD RUSH
• Gold rushes were typically marked by a general
buoyant feeling of a "free-for-all" in income
mobility, in which any single individual might
become abundantly wealthy almost instantly, as
expressed in the California Dream.
GOLD RUSH
• Gold rushes helped spur waves of
immigration that often led to the
permanent settlement of new
regions. Activities propelled by gold
rushes define significant aspects of
the culture of the Australian and
North American frontiers. At a time
when the world's money supply was
based on gold, the newly-mined
gold provided economic stimulus far
beyond the goldfields, feeding into
local and wider economic booms.
GOLD RUSH
• Gold rushes occurred as early as the times of the
Roman Empire, whose gold mining was described by
Diodorus Siculus and Pliny the Elder, and probably further
back to ancient Egypt.
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• Within each mining rush there is typically a transition through progressively higher
capital expenditures, larger organizations, and more specialized knowledge. They
may also progress from high-unit value to lower-unit value minerals (from gold to
silver to base metals).
• A rush typically begins with the discovery of placer gold made by an individual. At
first the gold may be washed from the sand and gravel by individual miners with
little training, using a gold pan or similar simple instrument. Once it is clear that
the volume of gold-bearing sediment is larger than a few cubic metres, the
placer miners will build rockers or sluice boxes, with which a small group can wash
gold from the sediment many times faster than using gold pans. Winning the gold
in this manner requires almost no capital investment, only a simple pan or
equipment that may be built on the spot, and only simple organisation. The low
investment, the high value per unit weight of gold, and the ability of gold dust and
gold nuggets to serve as a medium of exchange, allow placer gold rushes to occur
even in remote locations.
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After the sluice-box stage, placer mining may become increasingly large scale, requiring larger
organisations and higher capital expenditures. Small claims owned and mined by individuals may
need to be merged into larger tracts. Difficult-to-reach placer deposits may be mined by tunnels. Water
may be diverted by dams and canals to placer mine active river beds or to deliver water needed to
wash dry placers. The more advanced techniques of ground sluicing, hydraulic mining and dredging
may be used.
Typically the heyday of a placer gold rush would last only a few years. The free gold supply in stream
beds would become depleted somewhat quickly, and the initial phase would be followed by
prospecting for veins of lode gold that were the original source of the placer gold. Hard rock mining,
like placer mining, may evolve from low capital investment and simple technology to progressively
higher capital and technology. The surface outcrop of a gold-bearing vein may be oxidized, so that the
gold occurs as native gold, and the ore needs only to be crushed and washed (free milling ore). The
first miners may at first build a simple arrastra to crush their ore; later, they may build stamp mills to
crush ore at greater speed. As the miners venture downwards, they may find that the deeper part of
vein contains gold locked in sulfide or telluride minerals, which will require smelting. If the ore is still
sufficiently rich, it may be worth shipping to a distant smelter (direct shipping ore). Lower-grade ore
may require on-site treatment to either recover the gold or to produce a concentrate sufficiently rich
for transport to the smelter. As the district turns to lower-grade ore, the mining may change from
underground mining to large open-pit mining.

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