How Is Gold Mined?

Video Transcript

"The great gold rush is on and a lot of Americans are getting involved in gold because of the fact that its value is shooting up significantly. Well, the Klondike, back in the 1897 Gold Rush, was a very important component of mining gold, right out of the stream with a sluice pan and things of that nature, gold miners were staking their fortune back then. Nowadays mining is much more sophisticated. Large mining companies basically strip mine large deposits and where deposits are located. Strip mining involves using specialized equipment, large earth movers that scrape off various layers of the substrata, and then put it on conveyor belts where it is separated from it's substrata looking for the actual ingots or actual raw ore that comes out. There are various mines around the world that will generate a higher component of ore than other spots of the world, most notably South Africa. Canada has a tremendously sophisticated gold mining technique, as well as Mexico also gets involved in high veins of ore. Unlike oil drilling you have to be very careful in mining gold so you do not upset the enhancement of the metal itself. So it's a much more longterm, prolonged way of excavating the precious metal out of the ground. That being said, environmentalists do not like gold mining because it eviscerates the surrounding space and the environment, it's very damaging to the environment to get the gold out. But these various countries that we talk about do not have environmental regulations in place so it's pretty much a wide open field, with the exception of Canada as well. A little bit today about where and how gold is mined. This is Financial Advisor, Patrick Munro."