GOLD

Historical notes on gold

Compared with the gold placers and mines of the Old World those in parts of the New may be just as ancient, although it would appear that the Aborigines of North and South America put little emphasis on gold beyond its use as ornaments, jewellery, sacrificial knives, etc. Columbus of Genoa found the natives in possession of gold nuggets, a fact, which excited the Spaniards to later pursue their conquests of Mexico and South America. Their avarice for gold and their ceaseless search for Eldorado, regardless of the circumstances and cruelty they wrought on the natives, convinced the latter that the white man's god was 'gold'. The letter of King Ferdinand of Spain to his colonists in America dated July 25, 1511 would seem to bear this out for it commanded them "Get gold, humanely if you can; but at all hazards get gold". The Spaniards were afflicted by the "auri sacra fames" (1) as are many individuals of our present civilization. In the pursuit of golden treasure, gods as well as men are often destroyed as in Wagner's great opera "Der Ring der Nibelungen" of which "Das Rheingold" is the prelude.

(1) "Quid non mortalia pectora cogis, auri sacra fames!"
(What dost thou not compel mortals to do, accursed thirst for gold!)
-Virgil-Aeneid

It seems certain from the accounts of Peter Martyr, Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Jose de Acosta and others that the Aztecs, Incas and the various peoples preceding them washed gold from placers with the gourd and batea (wooden pan) far back in antiquity. They probably also obtained much gold from the oxidized zones of various types of primary sulphide deposits, since they mined these extensively for silver long before the arrival of the Spaniards.

Gold has influenced the exploration and settlement of Russia's East, United States, Australia, South Africa and Canada in many ways. Even theories of the origin of gold deposits have been a factor in the history of Canada. It will be recalled that an early theory about the origin of gold deposits postulated that they developed under the celestial influence of the sun. From this it was easy to draw the conclusion that the largest number of gold deposits would be generated in the regions bounded by the Tropics of Capricorn and Cancer where the sun's influence was greatest. Columbus, in fact, wrote in his journal as he approached Cuba in 1492, "From the great heat which I suffer, the country must be rich in gold." It will be further recalled that a dispute (Nootka Sound Controversy) arose between Spain and Great Britain over the sovereignty of the lands bordering the northwest coast of America. Spain contended she possessed sovereignty by authority of the Papal Bull of Alexander VI in 1493, but Britain took the view that rights of sovereignty could be obtained only through trade and the establishment of colonies. Spain meanwhile had established a settlement on Nootka Sound and in 1789 seized four British ships in the sound. This act nearly led to war but was finally resolved in favour of the British viewpoint in a convention signed on October 28, 1790. It appears probable that among the factors that influenced the Spanish decision was the advice given the Spanish king, Charles IV that gold was unlikely to occur in the northern regions of America because it was thought that the element was generated only in those regions most influenced by the sun.

The Russia has long been a legendary source of gold. The land of Colchis drained by the river Phasis (the modern Rioni) in Georgia is reputed by legend to have provided great quantities of gold. Similarly the Persians are said to have obtained much gold from the Scythians, a polyglot group of tribes that inhabited the region north of the Black Sea, and from various Iranian and other tribes who inhabited the Ural-Uzbek-Altai region. The golden road to Samarkand was known centuries before Christ. With time the monopoly of gold mining became the sole preserve of the Imperial Czars who pursued extensive placer and lode mining first in the Urals, beginning about 1774, and later in many parts of Siberia, especially in the Altai region where alluvial deposits were exploited as early as 1820. In 1829, the placer deposits of the Lena were first exploited and in 1840 those of the Yenisei Ridge came into production; the placers of the drainage system of the Amur were apparently first worked around 1867, and those in the Far Eastern Maritime area appear to have been first exploited around 1870 or earlier.

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Rafal Swiecki, geological engineer email contact
February, 2008

This document is in the public domain.