Gold: From the Mine to the Gold Refinery to the Finger

Gold has an interesting journey from its place of origin through to either the bank vault or the ring finger. This journey starts at the source and goes via the gold refinery to end up in its final destination either on the hand of your intended or tucked safely away in the bank for a rainy day.

From Mining to the Gold Refinery

Before gold can be processed at the gold refinery it must first be mined. This is the process of extracting gold from the earth's surface. Gold is mined either in nuggets or gold dust. Mining can take several forms:

Panning
This is perhaps the most primitive manual form of gold mining whereby a pan is used to sort gold from other gravel along the river bed. This is one of the easiest techniques for mining; however, it is not necessarily the most cost effective for larger gold deposits. It is often still employed in the initial stages of identifying gold deposits.
Dredging
Dredges are essentially like large Hoovers that suck gravel up from the river bed and pass it through a sorting process to pick out the gold deposits.
Hard Rock Mining
This is a much more commercial side of mining for gold when the deposit itself is encased in hard rock. Pit mining of this nature can be either open-pit or underground.

Generally mining is strictly monitored by regulatory bodies within the country. This is especially important in areas such as Africa whereby fears of exploitation overshadow ongoing mining. Before being able to reach the gold refinery the gold, either as nuggets or gold dust will have to pass through the relevant government export agency within its country of origin.

The Gold Refinery

When the gold reaches the gold refinery it goes through the next stage of processing. During its time in the gold refinery any impurities are removed from the gold. The gold is liquefied in a furnace at around 1,084 degrees centigrade, the chemical boiling point of gold. Chemicals such as soda ash are then added to the liquid gold in order to separate out the impurities. A sample of the liquid gold is then tested in order to measure the gold content. It is considered ready when it is 99.9% pure. At this stage it is cast into gold bars.

After it has left the gold refinery the next step depends on what the end usage of the gold will be. If it is to be made into gold coins it will be transferred to a mint. For serious gold investors it is at this stage that their gold is ready to be purchased after it has passed through the gold refinery and been cast into gold bars.

Jewelry

If it is destined to be used for jewelry it will have to be alloyed with other metals depending on which color of gold is required and which karatage. Pure gold is 24 karats; however, in this state it is simply too soft and malleable to be used for jewelry. Yellow gold is alloyed with a mix of copper and silver to give it the yellow color we typically associate with yellow gold jewelry. White gold is alloyed with either nickel or palladium. Rose gold is alloyed with copper. Different countries have different preferences for the color of gold and also the purity level they require for jewelry. Asia and the Middle East like the extremely yellow color of yellow gold whereas the US and UK tend to prefer 18k yellow gold which has been alloyed with silver and copper and so is not as yellow in color.

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