2020520&ensp·&enspBronze Age gold objects are plentiful, especially in Ireland and Spain, and there are several well known possible sources. Romans used hydraulic mining methods, such as hushing and ground sluicing on a large scale to extract gold from extensive alluvial (loose sediment) deposits, such as those at Las Medulas.Mining was under the control of the state but the mines may have been leased to
The term gold is the from the ProtoIndoEuropean base * ghel / * ghol meaning yellow, green, or possibly bright. The largest gold nugget ever found is the Welcome Stranger discovered by John Deason and Richard Oates in Australia on February 5, 1869. The nugget is 10 by 25 inches and yielded 2,248 ounces of pure gold.
2020522&ensp·&enspGold mining is a global business with operations on every continent, except Antarctica, and gold is extracted from mines of widely varying types and scale. Mines and gold mining operations have become increasingly geographically diverse, far removed from the concentrated supply of four decades or so ago when the vast majority of the worlds