American school children learn all about the U.S. gold rush in the Western part of the country. Goldmining was a speculative, but potentially highly rewarding endeavor and attracted, almost exclusively, adult men. But the entrepreneurship of gold mining (though not mining as wage work) is long gone in the U.S. Still, gold is in high demand: “The price of gold, which stood at $271 an ounce on September 10, 2001, hit $1,023 in March 2008, and it may surpass that threshold again” (source). Who are the gold entrepreneurs today? Where? Under what economic conditions do they work? And with what environmental impact?
I found hints to answers in a recent Boston.com slide show and a National Geographic article (thanks to Allison for her tip in the comments). While there is still some gold mining in the U.S., there is gold mining, also, in developing countries and all kinds of people participate:
According to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), there are between 10 million and 15 million so-called artisanal miners around the world, from Mongolia to Brazil. Employing crude methods that have hardly changed in centuries, they produce about 25 percent of the world’s gold and support a total of 100 million people…
Environmentally, gold is especially destructive. The ratio of gold to earth moved is larger than in any other mining endeavor.
It makes me rethink whether I really want to buy gold (because, you know, I do that constantly, darling, constantly). In fact, jewelry accounts for two-thirds of the demand. In the comments, HP reminds me:
Gold (along with even more problematic metals) is found in pretty much all consumer electronics. It’s in your computer, your cellphone, your .mp3 player, your TV/stereo, etc. You’re buying gold all the time already, whether you know it or not.
UPDATE! A reader, Heather Leila, linked to a picture she took of gold prospecting in Suriname (at her own blog). She writes:
The gold mines aren’t what you are thinking. They aren’t underground, you don’t carry a pick axe and a helmet. The garimpos are where the miners have dammed a creek and created large mud pits. The mud is pumped through a long pipe lined with mercury. The mercury attaches itself to the specks of gold and gets filtered out as the mud is poured into a different pit. The mercury is then burned off, while the gold remains. This is how it was explained to me. From the plane, they are exposed patches of yellow earth dotting the endless forest.
See also our posts on post-oil boom life and gorgeous photos of resource extraction by Edward Burtynsky.
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Comments 21
HP — January 28, 2010
Gold (along with even more problematic metals) is found in pretty much all consumer electronics. It's in your computer, your cellphone, your .mp3 player, your TV/stereo, etc. You're buying gold all the time already, whether you know it or not.
Kat — January 28, 2010
It's slightly random to me to have a post on gold mining which features neither South Africa nor China, the major gold producers in the world. I checked on wiki regarding US mining and it says "Mines in South Dakota and Nevada supply two-thirds of gold used in the United States." I wouldn't call that "long gone".
Jared — January 28, 2010
As a geologist, I think it's important to point out that the vast, vast majority of gold mining in the world is done in industrialized mines under much better working conditions than these photos show. Artisanal workers are involved around the world in every industry, from mining to textiles to agriculture, but that doesn't mean that the answer to "Who mines for gold today?" is answered by these photographs. This kind of mining has been done in these countries for centuries, and in many places (such as areas in Africa and Asia) for millennia. This type of mining is not a result of Western society or industrialization; it is surely affected in some way by it, but the title "Modern Goldmining" is an EXTREMELY inaccurate title and absolutely does not do anything except lead the viewer into forming a certain opinion about the picture.
Allison — January 28, 2010
National Geographic had an article last year about gold which I found fascinating-- not only the stories of people who spend their lives in the mines and creeks, but also some of the logistical facts that seem so unbelievable. For example:
"In all of history, only 161,000 tons of gold have been mined, barely enough to fill two Olympic-size swimming pools."
"[In a model mine with less environmental impact] Extracting a single ounce of gold there-the amount in a typical wedding ring—requires the removal of more than 250 tons of rock and ore."
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/01/gold/larmer-text
Federico Sendel — January 28, 2010
Just a small correction: its Colombia, not Columbia,
heather leila — January 28, 2010
Just this summer I was in the gold mining region in Suriname. There are a lot of politics around gold in that country. Many Brazilians have illegally immigrated their because Brazil's own gold mining policies (in an environmental protection effort) have made it difficult for miners there. So they go to Suriname where they have a precarious and uneasy relationship with the native population. The government doesn't do a lot to stop the mining because, despite adverse affects on the health and environment of its people, gold is still good for their economy.
The miners are made out to be so evil because they are destroying the rainforest, but when you meet them, they are so nice it's hard to know how to feel about it. Here are pictures from my trip:
http://heatherleila3.blogspot.com/2009/06/nos-garimpos.html
Village Idiot — January 28, 2010
We're still suffering the environmental costs of the early gold rushes here in the U.S. (and no doubt everywhere else they occurred) even as they continue to mount from the more modern industrial methods.
The 1849 California gold rush is the reason fish in San Fransisco Bay are so high in mercury today. When I hiked in certain areas in the Sierras and in the mountains of Colorado I was warned to be careful which creeks I got my water out of since portable filters or boiling won't remove mercury or cyanide and some creeks are polluted with unsafe levels of one, the other, or both. And it continues.
http://www.calgoldrush.com/part4/04environment.html
http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2001/109-10/focus.html
http://saiic.nativeweb.org/ayn/goldgreed.html
http://www.seattlepi.com/specials/mining/27007_sanluis12.shtml
Whoever figures out how to get the vast tonnage of gold out of seawater will both get very rich and stop this slow-motion environmental train wreck (so long as it doesn't involve yet more heavy metals, cyanide, or something equally toxic to extract it). There's enough trace gold in seawater to make it as cheap (and maybe cheaper) than aluminum foil is now. Incidentally, aluminum also used to be a precious metal (worth more than gold) until the electrolytic process for refining it from bauxite was invented.
In the case of gold or aluminum, it's not the scarcity of the element that makes it expensive (or used to) since neither is scarce, it's the difficulty of extracting it into it's pure form. Aluminum is the world's most common metallic element but it's locked up in rocks and soil and was very hard to extract until relatively recently. Most of the Earth's gold is diluted in seawater, and from what I've read the world's oceans contain roughly 10^15 tons of it (the concentration averages out to ~1mg/ton of seawater, though I'd guess it's higher in places like the Mariana Trench). It's definitely not going to be easy, but it's theoretically possible.
And for some real eye-opening fun, check out "modern" lead mining (especially if you drive an "eco-friendly" hybrid, lol).
Flamma — January 28, 2010
It is possible to buy gold jewelry and still be environmentally responsible. I'm in my senior year of college, I was thinking about buying a class ring, but I'd heard about the environmental impact of gold, so I wasn't sure. However, right on the ring's website it said that it was made with recycled gold, melted down from old jewelry, so I felt OK about buying it. If I ever get married, I'll be sure to do the same for my wedding ring.
Gold… what is the price ultimately? | Christopher A. Haase — February 1, 2010
[...] From Sociological Images “The price of gold, which stood at $271 an ounce on September 10, 2001, hit $1,023 in March 2008, and it may surpass that threshold again” (source). [...]
Stentor Media — November 9, 2010
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Klein — September 20, 2021
To be honest, I haven't seen gold as bullion for a long time. Usually, it is somehow more virtual as an object of purchase and sale on online platforms. But this is still relevant. I usually use autotrade gold to make transactions as profitable as possible. This is modern gold mining for me. There are also ups and downs here.