Beyond the Mother Lode

2018 ◽  
Vol 95 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-24
Author(s):  
Adam M. Romero
Keyword(s):  
Economic History ◽  
Gold Mining ◽  
Gold Rush ◽  
Cyanide Leaching ◽  
Gold Ore ◽  
Critical Node ◽  
Chemically Induced ◽  
Mother Lode

This article narrates California's chemically induced second gold rush through the lens of synthetic cyanide. In coupling California's geological, environmental, and economic history to the changing nature of gold ore in the late 1880s, it explores the role that the development of cyanide leaching and the industrialization of cyanide production had on California's mining landscapes. As such, it places California as a critical node in the globalization of cyanide leaching techniques. In doing so, it links disparate geographies and histories together to explore the chemicalization of California gold mining.

scholarly journals An Investigation of the Socio-Economic Benefits of Small-Scale Gold Mining in Malawi

Mining ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-34
Author(s):  
Tiyamike Haundi ◽  
Gift Tsokonombwe ◽  
Steven Ghambi ◽  
Theresa Mkandawire ◽  
Ansley Kasambara
Keyword(s):  
Gold Mining ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Gold Rush ◽  
Basic Knowledge ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Low Literacy ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Key Stakeholders ◽  
The Government

In the recent years, there has been a surge in artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) in various districts of Malawi. Reports of a gold rush have emerged in various districts, including Mangochi, Lilongwe, Balaka, and lately in Kasungu. There has been persistence by many indigenous communities participating in ASGM activities, yet little is being done by the government to formalize and support the sub-sector. The purpose of this study was to investigate the benefits of artisanal small-scale gold mining in Malawi and expose the shortfalls so that key stakeholders and policy makers are well informed. A quantitative approach which used semi-structured questionnaires was used and the data was analyzed using Microsoft excel and Statistical Packages for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The study shows that ASGM is characterized by people with low literacy levels, who use traditional tools (low-tech) and use methods fueled by lack of capital, and deficiency of basic knowledge of mining and geology. The study found that the government could achieve substantial socio-economic development from the sector by: (1) revising the current artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) legislation so that it embraces the customary practices whilst safeguarding the environment and improving the tax collection base; (2) providing support in form of mining related training and education to these communities; (3) leading in transfer of modern technologies for improved extraction; (4) supporting ASM cooperatives in securing credit facilities from financial institutions; and (5) closing the existing knowledge gap for ASM related issues through introduction of mining desk officers in district councils.

Research on the Gold Ore Leaching in Iodine-Iodide System

2013 ◽  
Vol 634-638 ◽  
pp. 3227-3233
Author(s):  
Xian Ping Luo ◽  
Min Hu ◽  
Chang Li Liang ◽  
Qing Hai Ge
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Reactions ◽  
Thermodynamic Data ◽  
Influence Factors ◽  
Promising Method ◽  
Cyanide Leaching ◽  
Gold Ore ◽  
Leaching Experiments

Iodine-iodide leaching gold ore is a promising method alternative to cyanide leaching. In this paper, Eh—pH diagram of Au-I--I2-H2O system was established through calculating the equilibrium potentials of the main chemical reactions based on the thermodynamic data of the actual iodide leaching of gold system. Gold ore leaching experiments in iodine-iodide system under different influence factors were carried out to verify the effectiveness of the Eh-pH diagram. The results indicated the diagram of Eh-pH can effectively guide the actual gold ore leaching in iodine-iodide system.

Microwave-Assisted Grinding of Bolkardag (Nigde, Turkey) Gold Ore and Enhanced Cyanide Leachability

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (5) ◽  
pp. 508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cemaliye Seflek ◽  
Oktay Bayat
Keyword(s):  
Particle Size ◽  
Power Level ◽  
Microwave Treatment ◽  
Cyanide Leaching ◽  
Gold Ore ◽  
Work Index ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Bond Work Index ◽  
Pre Treatment ◽  
Silver Extraction

This experimental work aims at studying the effect of particle size on the microwave pre-treatment for the grindability of Bolkardag (Nigde, Turkey) gold ore for cyanide leaching. Three different particle size batches (−8 + 4.7 mm, −4.75 + 2 mm and −2 + 1 mm) were used for microwave treatment. Each sub-samples were exposed to four different power levels of microwave energy (0.09, 0.18, 0.36 and 0.6 kW) at exposure times of 5, 10, 15 and 30 minutes and then grindability characteristic of the treated samples were investigated with Berry and Bruce comparative grindability method. It was clearly seen that increasing power level and exposure time caused a reduction in comparative Bond Work index. A maximum reduction in Bond Work index (73.54%) was achieved by 0.6 kW at 30 minutes of microwave treatment. Compared to the untreated sample’s results, gold and silver extraction rates increased, using microwave-treated samples, about 7% and 9% after 77 hours cyanide leaching, respectively. Additionally, the hydrated lime added samples (after 0.6 kW at 30 minutes of microwave treatment) were used in the cyanide leaching tests to determine the possible effect. It was observed that there was no significant difference on leaching extraction rates using lime free or lime added samples. Applying microwave pre-treatment before cyanide leaching, the gold and silver extraction rates could be increased and also the cost of communition could be reduced due to easier breakage of the ore due to a significant decrease in Bond Work index.

Nahoa’s Tears

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory Rosenthal
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Gold Mining ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Gold Rush ◽  
Sea Otter ◽  
Agricultural Work ◽  
Pacific World ◽  
Alta California ◽  
Sierra Nevada Mountains

Meanwhile, the California Gold Rush opened up yet another front in the Hawaiian migrant experience. Eighteen-year-old Henry Nahoa wrote a letter home from California’s Sierra Nevada mountains in the 1850s to express his “aloha me ka waimaka [aloha with tears]” to family members in Hawaiʻi. Nahoa’s tears were not alone. At least one thousand Hawaiians migrated to California in the period before, during, and after the Gold Rush. Chapter five explores workers’ experiences in Alta California from the 1830s to the 1870s. During this time, men like Nahoa lived and labored under Spanish, Mexican, and U.S. rule. They worked in sea otter hunting, cattle hide skinning, gold mining, and urban and agricultural work, from the coasts, to the sierras, to cities and farms. Nineteenth-century California was an integral part of the “Hawaiian Pacific World.”

Avenues for Research in Eighteenth-Century Portuguese Overseas History

Itinerario ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-121
Author(s):  
William Donovan
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Gold Rush ◽  
Profound Impact ◽  
Lisbon Earthquake ◽  
Brazilian History

Early modern Luso-Brazilian history is in a rut; and nowhere is that rut more evident than for the period between the late seventeenth century and the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, the period of the Brazilian gold rush. The mineral strikes made a profound impact on Portugal's society and economy: in both what changed and what remained the same. Yet surprisingly, this era remains one of the least studied periods in Portuguese history. There is not, for example, even a modern biography of Dom Joao V, whose forty-five-year reign encompassed the gold rush's most glittering moments. In what follows I will argue that several widespread perceptions of the lack of sources for early modern Luso-Brazilian history are incorrect and in need of substantial revision; and further that some traditional explanations of eighteenth-century economic history have been based on inadequate research more dependent upon ideology than sound scholarship.

Illegal Gold Mining and Violence in Colombia

2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolás Idrobo ◽  
Daniel Mejía ◽  
Ana María Tribin
Keyword(s):  
National Parks ◽  
Gold Mining ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
Gold Rush ◽  
Mining Activities ◽  
Armed Groups ◽  
Forced Displacement ◽  
Illegal Mining ◽  
International Price ◽  
Indigenous Reserves

AbstractThe increase in the international price of commodities after the international financial crisis in 2008 produced a gold rush in the Colombian economy, making legal and illegal mining a very profitable and attractive business. The increase in the illegal exploitation of metals like gold has exacerbated violence in municipalities with an abundance of such minerals. Gold is believed to be a new engine in the Colombian conflict. This paper documents the phenomenon and quantifies the causal impact that the gold boom has had on indicators of violence such as homicides, forced displacement and massacres. We use the location of national parks, indigenous reserves and geochemical anomalies associated with the presence of gold mines as instruments for illegal mining in order to disentangle the causal effect of illegal mining on violence. By law, it is very difficult to get licenses for the extraction of gold in parks and indigenous reserves, and this might be a factor increasing the prevalence of illegal mining activities in municipalities with these features. In order to have time variation in our instruments, we interact geographical features associated with the presence of gold and illegal gold mining (which vary only at the municipal level) with the international price of gold. Our estimates indicate that the rise of illegal gold mining has caused a statistically significant increase in violence, as measured with the homicide rate and the victims of massacres. However, we do not find a significant causal effect of illegal gold mining on forced displacement. Our interpretation is that the increase in the profitability of illegal mining activities has sparked a dispute over territorial control between illegal armed groups in order to monopolize the extraction of the precious minerals. Nevertheless, illegal mining is a labor intensive activity, and this may have counteracted the incentives of illegal armed groups to displace local populations from their land.

scholarly journals Fried eggs and all-women gangs: the geopolitics of Chinese gold mining in Ghana, bodily vulnerability, and resistance

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-73
Author(s):  
Heidi Hausermann ◽  
Janet Adomako ◽  
Maya Robles
Keyword(s):  
Teen Pregnancy ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Gold Mining ◽  
Gold Rush ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Monetary Policies ◽  
Feminist Geopolitics ◽  
Supportive Interventions ◽  
Pregnant Teen ◽  
Political Economic

Between 2008 and 2016, more than 50,000 Chinese citizens migrated to Ghana to mine gold on small-scale concessions. This is particularly surprising given that small-scale mining is an activity reserved for Ghanaian citizens. Foreign gold mining is mediated by various intersecting political economic and geopolitical shifts, including unprecedented gold demand, economic crisis, and informal conditions to Chinese loans. Based on long-term, mixed-methods fieldwork, and drawing from feminist geopolitics research, we argue Ghana’s recent gold rush portends gendered implications for bodies in rural areas. We center our discussion on bodies to demonstrate the ways extractive practices increase vulnerability among women and children, including teen pregnancy and mercury exposure. Yet, women also contest foreign mining and its myriad implications (e.g., refusing to sell land and entering sites while menstruating despite being “forbidden” to do so). A feminist geopolitics perspective allows the tracing of specific political economic processes (Chinese monetary policies, informal loan conditions) to other sites (Pokukrom, the pregnant teen), thereby enabling a clearer understanding of how supportive interventions might occur.

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