Mountains of Gold are the two largest gold mining countries in history. Gold mines of South Africa How much gold was mined in South Africa

Trade in Africa is mainly due to a variety of natural resources, which are abundant on the continent. Did you know, for example, that gold and diamonds are among the most exported commodities among African countries? And that South Africa is the largest gold producer in the world?

Read the article and learn interesting facts from the world of gold about South Africa, Morocco, Benin and The Gambia.

There are two extremes in Africa with regard to trade. Most of the countries are developing countries, while the rest have a skilled labor force, developed infrastructure and financial resources. Despite the difference in the welfare of individual countries, exports across the mainland as a whole are significant. These are palm oil, oil, cocoa beans, timber, as well as gold and diamonds.

Gold in Africa: from antiquity to the present day

From the 5th to the 8th century, due to the demand for coins, gold was the main export commodity. Exports of this precious metal increased between the 7th and 11th centuries, when the demand for gold from the Mediterranean region increased. Taking advantage of this cash flow, countries such as Mali and Ghana began minting money: for this reason, Ghana was called the "Land of Gold". African gold was used in Western gold coins and was the main export product.

Since 1500, African gold has ruled over the worldwide coinage system. Gold was the most important and lasting element that shaped Africa's relationship with the rest of the world. For at least 1,500 years, gold was not only a commodity that influenced the economy and history of the continent, but also a link with other countries. Today, not only the gold deposits in the region are worth billions, but South Africa is the world's largest gold producer.

Morocco: a great opportunity for gold investors

The history of gold mining in Morocco is rich. The government recently decided to stimulate foreign investment in the sector and increase gold production. For decades, the government has been looking for ways to partner with foreign companies to develop gold mining in the country. This provides investors with an excellent opportunity to influence the Moroccan gold sector. Today, the country's gold reserves are 22.05 tons (price per ounce in Morocco is $ 1338.69).

Benin: second largest gold producer in Africa

The Benin government is reviewing its mining laws in cooperation with other government agencies. The main goal is to attract foreign investment to the gold sector, since, according to studies, many deposits may be hidden in the country. The exploration work of international gold mining companies in Benin has already yielded first positive results. It is curious that 39 of the most important gold deposits were found with the help of a satellite. Today the price of gold in Benin is $ 1337.20.

High potential of Gambia gold reserves

At the moment, many gold deposits have already been found, but the Gambia still remains a country with high potential, since commercial exploitation has not been extensive here. Most of the gold mining operations were carried out along the banks of the rivers south of Bangui in an artisanal way. This makes The Gambia attractive to gold investors, especially since most of the natural resources have not yet been developed. The current gold price in Gambia is $ 1268.09.

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Man began to mine gold in those regions of the globe where the earliest civilizations originated: in North Africa, Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, the Eastern Mediterranean. Soon, man moved from simple gathering of shiny grains to the use of primitive tools - stone and bronze picks, wooden or clay troughs. The famous golden fleece, for which Jason and the Argonauts went to Colchis, also represented a kind of tool for mining placer gold - a lamb skin, which was dipped into the water of fast mountain streams to catch the smallest particles of metal.

The history of gold mining is a gripping novel that has so far been written only in fragments. This story is closely connected with the great geographical discoveries and man's exploration of the planet, with the development of technology and economics, with the evolution of human society, with its revolutionary transformations. It is filled with amazing feats and heinous crimes, fevers and panics, discoveries and losses.

The question of how much gold is mined and mined in the world began to interest people long ago, but only in the 19th century were plausible calculations of past mining made, and only by the end of the century did the current statistics become satisfactory.

With this in mind, the figures for the total production of the yellow metal can only be considered as rough estimates. It can be assumed that over 6 thousand years people have mined over 100 thousand tons of gold from the bowels of the earth. The estimates of many authors are approaching this figure. According to estimates by S.M.Borisov, the total production (excluding the USSR) in 1980 amounted to 93 thousand. t * .

* (Borisov S.M. Gold in the economy of modern capitalism.- Ed. 2.- M., 1984.- S. 220.)

In different eras, different continents and regions of the globe were centers of gold production. Africa was already in ancient times the main area of \u200b\u200bmetal mining, and in the last century there has been a large concentration of its production in South Africa. As a result, the Black Continent accounts for approximately 1/2 of the total production. More than 1/4 of this value falls on America, mostly in the North. Asia outside the USSR plays a relatively minor role in world gold mining, although in the Middle Ages, fantastic information about the wealth of India and adjacent countries spread in Europe. In terms of production per capita, the first place among the continents is obviously occupied by Australia along with Oceania. Although the first gold was found there a little over 100 years ago, the production of the metal in this sparsely populated area over the past period is 7-8% of the total volume. In Europe, a significant amount of gold at that time was mined only in ancient times, and in the Middle Ages and in our time, the old continent does not play a noticeable role in the world picture.

Of course, the levels of extraction in antiquity and in the Middle Ages, in the 19th century and today, are completely different. Today the world produces slightly less metal per year than was mined in the millennium from the collapse of the Western Roman Empire to the discovery of America, or, say, about the same as in the entire first half of the 19th century. Technological progress in gold production is on a par with progress in other sectors of the global mining industry. But, on the other hand, the extraction of the yellow metal is faced with growing difficulties, partly common to many minerals, partly specific to it. Industry is forced to switch to poorer ores, to penetrate deeper and deeper into the ground, to move to remote areas.

How to imagine a mass of gold in 100 thousand. t? Is it a lot or a little? A lot, given the enormous laboriousness of its extraction. Even today, in gold-rich South Africa, 500 thousand miners, armed with modern technology, produce less than 700 t pure metal, which means an average of about 1.5 kg for one person employed. How hard it was for a gold digger, armed only with a shovel and a washing tray, to give each grain of metal!

But in comparison with other metals known to man for a long time - not so much, and in some tangible sense - very little. All the gold mined by mankind would fit into a cube with an edge of about 17 m or, say, a medium-sized cinema hall. The gold produced annually would fill only a small living room.

By the way, about the total and annual production. No one is particularly interested in how much oil has been produced or steel smelted in the entire history of mankind. This is not very important for copper and even silver. But gold is a special article. Oil disappears in the course of its consumption. Iron and steel, to some extent, are remelted as scrap. Recycling of copper and especially silver is more significant. But only gold is eternal: once mined, it does not disappear due to its natural and social properties, it does not go into the ground, water or air. It is possible that your wedding ring is made of gold mined 3 thousand years ago in Egypt or 300 years ago in Brazil. Maybe this gold has since been in the form of an ingot, a coin, a brooch, a cigarette case.

Of course, the eternity of gold is somewhat of an exaggeration. Some of it is consumed irrevocably. Any remelting and processing of gold is associated with losses. When gold went in coins, they were worn out by the touch of thousands of hands. It would seem that this is an insignificant value. But, according to fairly competent estimates, in the 80s of the last century, the annual losses from abrasion of coins in countries that had gold circulation were 700-800 kg metal. With the spread of the gold standard in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, these losses should have increased significantly.

Once the Literaturnaya Gazeta published on the 16th page such a joke in the form of an advertisement or appeal: "Bury treasures in specially designated places!" But for some reason the owners of the treasures do not want to follow this rule and, on the contrary, bury them in the most secluded and unexpected places. Therefore, apparently, no one has ever found and will not find a lot of gold treasures. It is also very difficult to calculate how much gold was lost on the seabed as a result of shipwrecks. Modern forms of technical use of gold partly destroy it in the sense that reuse is impossible or uneconomical (thin films, solutions, etc.).

Lost gold estimates usually range between 10 and 15% of total production. One American author estimated in the 40s of our century the amount of this irretrievably lost metal at 7-8 billion dollars, which then approximately corresponded to 6-7 thousand. t *. The latest estimates are close to this. The research department of the American gold trading company J. Aron and Company has calculated that of the 88 thousand g of metal mined, according to his estimate, by 1980, about 10 thousand were lost. t.

* (Hobbs F. Gold. The Real Ruler of the World, Chic, 1943, P. 125.)

Thus, almost all of the mined gold is economically active, in some form suitable for further use. Annual production adds only a very small share to the stocks of the yellow metal accumulated by mankind (recently - just over 1%). No other commodity comes close to gold in this respect.

The reliability of gold production statistics increases as we move from ancient times to modern times. Since approximately 2/3 of all metal was mined in the 20th century, and during this period production was increasingly concentrated on large capitalist enterprises with reliable accounting and control, the above figure can be considered quite reliable. However, any official or unofficial gold production figures for individual countries and groups of countries should only be regarded as estimates with a certain degree of confidence. There is a mass of data that a significant part of the gold mined by small miners and bought by private buyers is not taken into account by government statistics, that theft at different stages of the production process is significant, etc. In recent years, due to these factors, mining estimates have fluctuated sharply gold in Brazil. Ashanti Gold Fields, based in Ghana, says in its 1978 annual report that the sharp rise in the price of gold has sparked an unusual revival of buyer activity around the mine. During the year, 5% of all personnel with access to gold were arrested for stealing metal.

The most approximate estimates of gold mining in the ancient world and in the Middle Ages. The German scientist G. Quiring made meticulous calculations using the testimony of ancient authors, preserved documents, geological data and - perhaps most of all - his intuition. He believes that before the discovery of America, about 12.7 thousand tons were mined in the world. t gold *.

* (Quiring H. Geschichte des Goldes. Die goldenen Zeitalter in ihrer kulturellen und wirtschaftlichen Bedeutung, Stuttgart, 1948.)

In the ancient world, the main gold-producing regions were Egypt (together with present-day Sudan) and the Iberian Peninsula. From Egypt of the time of the pharaohs, many monuments of material culture and writing have survived to this day, testifying to the role of gold in its economy, the progress of mining and smelting technology, and the most difficult conditions of slave labor in mines. The artistic treasures of the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun (XIV century BC) are world famous, and among them are remarkable gold items. Gold from Egypt spread to neighboring countries. For more than a millennium (from the middle of the 2nd to the middle of the 1st millennium BC), the Phoenicians, a sea and merchant people who made amazing travels for that time, played the main role in the spread of gold throughout the Mediterranean and beyond. according to Herodotus, voyages around Africa.

According to Quiring, one of the inscriptions from the time of Tutankhamun contains the name of a man who can be considered the first known geologist and mineral researcher. A certain Reni reports that he was sent by the government to search for gold ores. It is very likely that mining was taught in the ancient "university" at the temple of the god Ptah in Ona (Heliopolis).

The Egyptians began with the mining of placer gold, but soon moved on to the development of primary deposits and achieved amazing results in this matter. In the Eastern Desert and in the mountainous regions located in Upper Egypt in the vast territory between the Nile and the Red Sea, the remains of ancient mines up to 100 m deep are still preserved.The Egyptians were the pioneers of many methods of mining, smelting and processing gold. In the wall paintings of the tomb from the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. e. there are very detailed images of these technological processes.

In addition to Egypt itself, gold was mined in the southern countries subject to the pharaohs - Nubia and Kush (modern Sudan). In pursuit of gold, the Egyptians penetrated into Ethiopia and, apparently, reached the territory of modern Zimbabwe. Thus, gold flocked to Egypt from almost all of Africa. Its further movement was largely a re-export.

On the Iberian Peninsula (in Spain and partly in Portugal), gold has been mined in some amount since ancient times. However, the scale of mining increased dramatically after the Roman conquest, which began at the end of the 3rd century and ended in the 2nd century BC. e. As usual, the gold was originally selected from the coastal sands. Production significantly exceeded the level of production in Egyptian mines when the development of primary deposits began in northern and northwestern Spain. In the gold mines, the Romans built sophisticated engineering structures for the caving and washing of rocks. The total mass of the rock processed during mining is estimated by experts at hundreds of millions of tons. Such a scale of work in the gold mining industry was again achieved only in the 19th century.

The famous scientist and writer of antiquity Pliny the Elder, who was in the 1st century AD. e. a high-ranking Roman official in Spain, left a detailed and technically competent description of gold production. Of the engineering structures in the mines, he says they are "superior to those of the titans." Moving on to the numbers, he reports that in his time only the provinces of Asturias, Galicia and Lusitania gave 20 thousand Roman pounds (over 6.5 t) gold per year. This is a very significant number, even by today's standards.

Gold from Spain was the main source of the formation of a large state reserve, as well as the distribution of gold products among the upper classes of Roman society. In addition, during this period, quite significant quantities of metal were mined in other countries subject to Rome: Gaul (modern France), the countries of the Balkan Peninsula and in Italy itself. Outside the Roman world, mining was most significant in India and Central Asia.

The Middle Ages were a period of decline in gold mining in Europe. Many of the techniques that pervaded the Roman era have been forgotten. The mining of ore gold has ceased altogether, only in some places in the channels of rivers and streams people in a primitive way "washed gold. Early Christianity, presenting need as virtue, preached against gold. From about the 9th to the 13th century, no gold coin was minted anywhere in Western Europe. Some revival was outlined only in the XIII-XIV centuries in Germany and in the adjacent Slavic lands. At the same time, silver mining developed in these regions. From the reports of Arab geographers and travelers, we also know about gold mining in various regions of modern Soviet Central Asia, Afghanistan, and India.

In the late Middle Ages, Tropical Africa became the main source of gold mining. The Portuguese and other Europeans descended further south along the western coast of Africa in search of the precious metal. The current independent state of Ghana in colonial times was called the Gold Coast: this is how Europeans christened this land in the 15th century.

Medieval scientists tried to solve the problem with the help of alchemy - to find a way to get gold from less valuable metals. Polymetallic ores usually contain some gold. When the ore was smelted, gold was released, and it was assumed that it could be mined from silver or copper. This was the source of both bona fide mistakes and blatant fraud. As is known, the science of chemistry subsequently grew out of alchemy. Alchemy very colorfully revives the history of the Middle Ages and the literature of that era, but we still cannot attribute a single gram of gold produced to it.

There were many directions in alchemy, but there were some general principles that were already introduced in the early Middle Ages by the Arab alchemists. They believed that all metals originated from the combination in varying proportions of sulfur and mercury. In this case, the task of artificially obtaining gold was reduced to the search for the proper proportion and methods of combining these two starting materials. Alchemists considered sulfur as the father of gold, and mercury as its mother.

The belief in alchemy in the Middle Ages was so universal that the English king Henry IV even issued a decree forbidding anyone other than the king to engage in the conversion of base metals into gold. On the other hand, already at a very early stage in the development of science there were people who spoke of the impossibility of transforming metals and the absurdity of the claims of alchemists. These include, in particular, the great thinker of the medieval East, Abu Ali Ibn-Sina (Avicenna).

Eternity, the indestructibility of gold was, apparently, one of the sources of the alchemists' ideas about some of its mystical connection with human immortality. Hence the dreams of creating an "elixir of life" based on gold. The association of gold with the Sun as the source of all life on Earth, which has been going on since ancient times, has the same rational explanation.

According to Quiring's estimates, just a millennium before the discovery of America, about 2.5 thousand tons were mined in the world. t gold. The discovery of America marked the beginning of a new chapter in the history of precious metals. First of all, it was silver. According to the calculations of A. Zetber, whose works are classic in the field of statistics of the extraction of precious metals, the world extraction of silver in value exceeded the extraction of gold until the 30s of the XIX century, and the New World * provided a huge share of the extraction of white metal. This fact was of great importance for the fate of the monetary system: it extended the "monetary life" of silver and the predominance of the double (bimetallic) system until the end of the 19th century.

* (Cm. Soetbeer A. Edelmetallproduktion und Wertverhaltniss zwischen Gold and Silber seit der Entdeckung Amerikas bis zur Gegenwart - Gotha, 1879 - S. 107-111.)

The relative lag in gold mining in America is also explained by the fact that the Spaniards and the Portuguese did not manage to discover any significant deposits of ore gold, and the development of placers could not give a completely stable and long-term production. Nevertheless, until the discovery of gold in California and Australia in the middle of the 19th century, South and Central America remained the main gold-mining region in the world. According to Quiring, based on Zetber's calculations, in the 16th century America gave more than 1/3 of world production, in the 17th century - more than 1/2, in the 18th century - 2/3. But the absolute values \u200b\u200bof gold production were insignificant by today's standards: in the 16th century, less than 1,000 tons of gold were mined worldwide. t, in the XVII - 1.1 thous. t, in the 18th century - 2.2 thousand. t... During the first two centuries, most of all gold was mined in the territory of modern Colombia and Bolivia, and in the 18th century - in Brazil, which during this period advanced to first place in the world. Portugal, then Brazilian, was the first country to officially introduce a gold standard monetary system, while abandoning silver.

The end of the 18th century - the first half of the 19th century was a "lean" time for gold mining. According to Zetber, the average annual gold production reached 24.6 in 1741-1760 t, and then steadily decreased and in 1811-1820 was only 11.4 t... After that, she began to slowly rise *. It should be borne in mind that during this period in Western Europe and North America an industrial revolution was taking place, the production of goods for sale increased sharply, and therefore the need for money increased. Gold could not keep up with these events, and in the first half of the 19th century, its future as the basis of monetary systems was by no means guaranteed.

* (Ibid.- S. 110.)

In the short period between the depletion of South American placers and the Californian discovery, Russia came to the fore in the league of gold producers. In 1831-1840, it gave more than 1/3 of world production and retained its leadership until the end of the 40s of the XIX century. Archaeological data and written sources indicate that gold was mined in the Urals and Altai in antiquity. The very name Altai comes from the Turkic-Mongolian altan - gold. However, these developments were abandoned and forgotten, and the modern history of Russian gold begins in the middle of the 18th century, when it was found again in the Urals. Subsequently, gold (mainly in placers) was also found in the south of Western Siberia, in Eastern Siberia, and in the Far East.

During this period, the attention of the West to Russian mining was attracted by the famous German scientist A. Humboldt, who throughout his life was interested in the problems of gold. In 1838, he published a special work on the trends in world gold mining, where he cited data on Russia that he received directly from the Russian Minister of Finance E.F. Kankrin. Perhaps this information has somewhat encouraged bankers and economists in Western Europe.

A new - and eminently romantic - era in the history of gold began in January 1848, when, as Greene writes, following the traditional form of describing these events, "a carpenter named James Marshall found in a stream of water passing through John Sutter's mill, near the confluence Rivers American and Sacramento, grains that seemed to him like gold ... At first Marshall and Sutter tried to keep the news of the discovery from spreading, but rumors about gold were not easy to extinguish, and they soon reached San Francisco, which was small at the time port with a population of 2000. By the spring, half of California had left their farms and homes and rushed to the gold deposits ... By the fall of 1848, the first rumors of finds were already flying over New York. Every day brought fresh news, and the excitement grew. what happened over the next few months was unprecedented in history. Thousands of people suddenly saw the spark of the opportunity to get rich in a few days ... Even before December abre 1848 President Polk finally confirmed in his speech before Congress the size of the opening, a dump began, in which everyone tried to get to the West Bank as soon as possible ... "*.

* (Green T. Op. cit. - P. 30-31.)

John Sutter (or Johann Suther) in question was a remarkable person in his own way. The discoverer of Californian gold came from Switzerland and only shortly before that he moved to America. He was an adventurous and energetic person, but with a penchant for romantic eccentricities. His stormy life became the plot of the historical miniature by Stefan Zweig from the series "The Star Clock of Humanity". The discovery of gold on his land did not bring happiness to Zooter, he died in poverty and obscurity. Zooter was not the first and was not the last of the short-lived lucky ones, whom gold eventually ruined, ruined, drove into the grave.

When Zweig speaks of the Californian discovery as one of the "finest hours of mankind," he is referring to the historical significance of this event. The discovery of gold in California, remote at vast and insurmountable distances from the centers of civilization, played an important role in the development of capitalism in the 19th century. Californian gold, which flowed to the East Coast of the United States and to Western Europe, like fresh blood, poured into the capitalist economy. It pushed the growth of industry, trusts, large banks, the construction of railways, the development of world trade. Gold has played a particularly large role in the economic development of the United States. It promoted the development of vast territories in the west and central regions, economic convergence of individual states and territories, and the growth of the transport network.

Thanks to the Californian finds, the United States quickly stepped into first place in world gold mining and kept it almost until the end of the century, second only from time to time to Australia, where in 1851 its own gold rush began, much like the Californian one.

The result of the discovery of gold in California and Australia, as well as the growth of production in Russia and in some other regions of the globe, has resulted in a sharp change in the entire global situation with the yellow metal. In the second half of the 19th century, 11 thous. t gold - 8 times more than in the first, and twice more than in the entire era after the discovery of America. The share of Russia, even after the decline, remained quite significant and amounted to about 15%; the share of the United States is estimated at 33, Australia - at 27%.

However, the demand grew even faster, since during this period the gold standard was introduced in all major countries and the yellow metal became the basis of monetary systems and world money. Therefore, when by the 70s the cream was removed from placer deposits, and there were no new large and easily accessible ore deposits, pessimism spread among the capitalists.

In 1877, the Austrian Edward Suess published a book entitled "The Future of Gold", which then sounded quite original, but over the century it was worn out and frayed in numerous repetitions and variations (fate, perspective, chances of gold, etc.). Suess argued that, first, future gold production is critically dependent on alluvial deposits; secondly, humanity has already mined more than half of the gold available to it and the prospects for mining are very unfavorable; thirdly, for the universal introduction of the gold standard there is in no way enough metal *.

* (Cm. Suess E. Die Zukunft des Goldes - Wien, 1877.)

All these prophecies turned out to be erroneous, as, indeed, many others later. The history of gold is truly full of false prophecies and false predictions. In 1935, the English financial expert Paul Einzig in a book with exactly the same title - "The Future of Gold" - stated, for example, that "without a doubt, it can be argued that all countries will not deviate from the gold standard." He also believed that, "undoubtedly, the demonetization of gold would cause its price to drop to a value that is only a fraction of what it is today." In fact, the countries of the so-called "golden bloc" led by France, which had retained the gold standard for the longest time, moved away from it, when the paint had not yet dried on the pages of Einzig's book. The formal demonetization of gold, carried out internationally in the 70s of the XX century, not only did not cause a drop in its market price and purchasing power, but was accompanied by a significant increase in both indicators.

* (Einzig P. The Future of Gold - N. Y. 1935 - P. 63, 67.)

Let's go back, however, to the last century. At the moment when Suess made his gloomy predictions, gold was on the verge of its most brilliant takeoff. In 1867 in South Africa, on the banks of the legendary Vaal River, the richest diamond deposits were discovered. This attracted thousands of profit seekers to the godforsaken tiny Boer republic. Soon they found traces of gold in the neighborhood, but did not attach much importance to this. The first major discovery in the area was made in 1886.

The South African find was different from the sensational discoveries of rich placers in California and Australia, where gold could be picked up with almost bare hands. The metal content in the Transvaal ore is relatively low, but extremely constant. Therefore, the gold rush here was of a different nature: only people who had significant capital to buy equipment and hire workers could actually take part in it.

The Witwatersrand area soon became the world's largest gold mining basin. Here the production of gold was for the first time placed on an industrial base, on the rails of a large capitalist economy. Important technical innovations were introduced that made it possible to extract gold-bearing ore at unprecedented depths and dramatically increase the percentage of metal recovery from ore. Since the end of the 19th century, the fate of the gold mining industry in the capitalist world has been inextricably linked with South Africa.

In 1886, South Africa produced less than 1 t gold, and in 1898 - 117 t... After a sharp decline associated with the Boer War, production began to rise sharply again. In the first decade of the 20th century, South Africa ranked first in the world in gold mining. In 1913, in the Union of South Africa (this state as a British dominion arose in 1910), 274 t, or 42% of the world total. In second place was the United States with production of 134 t.

At the end of the 19th century, the last major gold rush of the classical type occurred - the Klondike epic in Northern Canada and Alaska, immortalized by the pen of Jack London and the cinema of Charlie Chaplin. However, it had little impact on the main trends characteristic of gold production in the 20th century.

Until that time, gold mining was different from other branches of capitalist industry. It was more like a gamble than a normal business with good bookkeeping, cost-benefit considerations. Thousands of gold prospectors went bankrupt and died, a few fabulously rich. In South Africa, things went differently. Companies know exactly what their costs are per 1 t processed ore and per ounce of mined gold. They strive to extract profit from gold mining, which would not be lower than profit in other industries. They can, to a certain extent, maneuver, change the volume of processed ore and metal, depending on how costs move.

In a similar direction, the gold mining industry of the USA, Australia, Canada, and to some extent also pre-revolutionary Russia, where in 1913 was mined 49 t... With this figure, Russia ranked fourth in the world after South Africa, the United States and Australia.

In the United States, California remained the most important gold mining region, but along with this, moderately rich ore deposits began to be developed in Nevada, South Dakota and in some other states. Major discoveries in Canada (especially in the province of Ontario) were made already in the 20th century, and production reached a significant scale only in the 1920s and 1930s, allowing this country to push back the USA and Australia and take second place in the capitalist world.

At the same time, the widespread transition from placer deposits to ore deposits did not exclude significant technological progress in mining placer gold. An important innovation was, in particular, the use of dredges - floating gold factories. Thus, work in the mines was also transferred to an industrial basis.

In addition to geological and technical factors, the financial and economic factor is of paramount importance for gold mining. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, gold was a unique commodity, the price of which was fixed and could not change under any circumstances. It was determined by the gold content of the major currencies, practically the dollar and pound sterling, and this content has not changed since the 18th century.

The First World War caused the temporary cancellation of the solid gold content of the pound sterling and an increase in the price of gold in this currency. But more important shifts occurred under the blows of the world economic crisis of 1929-1933.

The devaluation of the pound in 1931 and the dollar in 1934 meant a sharp decline in the gold content of these currencies and, therefore, an increase in the price of gold. In dollars, it rose by 69%, in pounds (by the beginning of the Second World War) - even higher. At the same time, under the influence of the world economic crisis, the prices of other goods, which means that the costs of the gold mining industry decreased.

When most industries suffered from the crisis and cut production, gold companies "grew fat" and increased production. In 1940, gold production in the capitalist world reached its highest point - 1138, including about 40% - in South Africa. In second place was Canada, in third - the United States.

The next three decades were difficult for the gold mining of capitalist countries. The mobilization of industry for the needs of the war caused a sharp decline in production in the United States, Canada and even in South Africa. In 1942, the US Department of War Production issued an order to temporarily completely mothball the mines. Inflation led to large increases in costs, while the official dollar price of gold, fixed in 1934, remained unchanged until 1971. Gold mining became less and less profitable, many mines were closed or mothballed. South African industry survived this period more easily: new rich deposits were discovered there, technological progress made it possible to reduce costs, and the workforce of Africans still cost dozens of times less than white workers. Nevertheless, some mines turned out to be unprofitable, and in order to save them from closure, the state in the post-war period was forced to introduce special subsidies from the budget for such enterprises. Similar measures have also been taken in Canada.

In 1945, gold production in the capitalist world was 654 t, more than half of which was in South Africa. By 1962, production exceeded the pre-war peak, and in the second half of the 60s - early 70s it was established at an annual level of 1250-1300 t, moreover, the Republic of South Africa (as the state began to be called since 1961) consistently gave approximately 3/4 of this total.

In total, the richest conglomerates of South Africa have produced about 40 thousand tons of metal over the century of their operation, or 40% of the total production in its entire history. It is considered undoubted that at the current level of production, mines can function for another 30-40 years. However, advances in geology and technology may lead to an increase in these estimates.

The graph of world gold production in the 20th century has three distinct humps and three pits. The humps (periods of production growth and its peaks) occur in the years before the First World War, on the eve of the Second World War, and before the formal demonetization of gold in the 70s. Accordingly, the pits were for the years of both world wars and for the second half of the 70s. At present, the curve is creeping up the slope of the fourth hump and in 1986 exceeded the maximum level of 1970 (Table 2).

SourceWorld currencies. Directory.- M., 1981; Gold 1987.Consolidated Gold Fields.- L., 1987.

How much gold is there in the world and where did it come from? This precious metal is a simple chemical element with atomic number 79. People wanted to have objects from it at any time, and it is also a symbol of power and wealth, but where did it come from?

The nucleation of gold cannot occur in the bowels of stars, but it can form during huge cosmic catastrophes, which scientists call gamma-ray bursts (GW). Scientists were lucky to observe a similar phenomenon. The information received gives a serious reason to believe that the most powerful burst of radiation was produced by the collision of neutron stars. In addition, the unique glow that can be seen at the site of the GW for several days indicates that a large amount of heavy elements is being formed during the catastrophe, and gold is no exception.

Having estimated the amount of the precious metal that was formed during GW, as well as the number of similar explosions that occurred in the entire history of the Universe, astronomers put forward the assumption that the entire volume of gold was formed precisely during gamma-ray bursts.

Today, bankers, miners, as well as fans of precious metals are interested in the question of how much gold there is in the world and how long it will last.

Mining history

For all the time, people have managed to extract not so much precious metal. The thing is that not always the available abilities and technical equipment guarantee good luck in the search for prey. To verify this, it is enough to study the statistics:

• Until 500, the total volume of mined gold was 10,500 tons;
• In subsequent years, up to 1,500, 2,500 were found;
• Answering the question how much gold is mined per year in the world, experts say the figure is 3,000 tons.

Studying the information about how much gold has been mined in the entire history of mankind, many may be surprised, because the figure is not too large, about 160,000 tons.

Talking about how much gold and how long it will still be found, some researchers say that the metal will end in a couple of centuries, besides, production volumes are growing every day.

How is mining going?

At first, searches were conducted using the simplest things. Sand was collected in a tray, which was shaken out into a water stream. Under the influence of the current, the sand was washed away, and gold particles remained at the bottom. This method is often used today. But there is a special technique that helps in this matter, so practically no one is mining by hand. Despite this, the process of excavation and direct extraction of metal from the ground remains quite laborious and long.

Where is it mined?

At the moment, South Africa is considered the largest supplier, where the mines reach 4 km depth. South Africa is home to the largest mine in the world called Waal Reefs. This is the only state where gold is the main product of production. There it is mined in 36 large mines, which employ hundreds of thousands of people.

In addition to Africa, for many years, the list of countries with the most gold includes:

• Australia;
• Russia;
• China.

In Australia, an increase in the extraction of the precious metal has been recorded since the early 19th century. Now gold is mined here in mines and mines. And in the United States there was a moment when this country experienced a "gold rush" and more than once. But most of the precious metal was found in the 60s and 70s of the last century.

Another country with the most gold is the Russian Federation. The first placer was found in the spring of 1724 by an ordinary peasant, and it happened in the region of Yekaterinburg. Over time, gold mining in the Urals, although slowly, but surely expanded. At the beginning of the 19th century, new deposits were discovered in Siberia. Thanks to the discovery of the Yenisei deposit, which happened in 1840, Russia came out on top in the extraction of precious metals, but even earlier, local hunters smelted bullets from nuggets. Usually mining was carried out by semi-handicraft methods, and placer deposits were developed. The vast majority of the mines were owned by foreign monopolies.

So how much gold was mined in Russia? By the end of the 19th century, the amount of precious metal found per year was about 40 tons, 90% of which is placer gold. In total, according to official data, 2754 tons of gold were found in the country, but hardly anyone will announce the true data on how much gold is actually mined in the world. Today, the production of metal is 170 tons annually, 150 of which are mined from the deposit, and 20 are secondary products.

China has also made significant progress in the search for the precious metal, here it is mined by the mine method. The largest amount of gold in Asian countries was found in the 16th – 17th centuries. Then these volumes began to decline, and America took the lead.

It makes no difference how much gold is in the world and where it is mined at the moment, reserves are still being depleted, and humanity will certainly face a shortage of precious metals.

When to expect a deficit?

Experts give very different estimates of how much gold is left in the world. The thing is that only those places where they work are studied, and their reserve is estimated only approximately. Some say that after 20 years the supply will run out, others argue that humanity will not face a deficit for another 2-3 centuries.

Our planet has a huge number of various elements, most of which are located in the bowels of the earth, and not on the surface. Gold is no exception, the 79th element of the periodic table is hidden from human eyes under tons of rock.

Geologists unanimously say that the deposits of the noble metal are located deep underground, or rather close to the core of the planet. Engaging in such developments, from an economic point of view, is simply unprofitable. But over time, the situation may turn in the other direction.

For skeptics, the USSR can be considered an example, where development and prospecting were carried out only at alluvial places, and no attention was paid to the indigenous ones. The reason is the reluctance of the authorities to develop the industry and invest in specialists or equipment.

But sooner or later the places where the most gold will be empty, and then what? Scientists offer three options for events:

• The precious metal can be mined in space;
• Recycle recyclable materials;
• Filtrate the water of the oceans and seas.

The processing industry is already gaining momentum, when citizens hand over broken jewelry to pawnshops. They are melted down, and more attractive products are made from the resulting raw materials.

Among other things, about 10% of gold during storage is subject to destruction, mechanical damage and reappears in nature. In addition to this fact, there are other, no less interesting nuances regarding gold.

• It is one of the most valuable metals, whose high cost opens up the possibility of creating mines all over the planet. Despite this, it is believed that 80% of all gold reserves are located in the bowels of the Earth;
• More than 70% of the weight of gold currently in circulation has been found after 1910;
• The core of the planet contains 5 times more gold than other rocks that are available for mining. If all this volume poured out onto the surface, it would cover the entire planet with a half-meter layer. It is noteworthy that 0.02 milligrams of gold is dissolved in a liter of water of all rivers, in addition to the oceans and the sea. Today, experts are working to extract Au from water and are ready to offer an alternative mining option, using bacteria that combine metal ions;
• Gold is used in various industries, for example, in dentistry: dentures and crowns are made on the basis of an alloy of gold with nickel, copper, and silver. Such alloys prevent the formation of corrosion and meet the highest mechanical properties;
• In addition, gold compounds are part of medical preparations that are used in the treatment of diseases such as: rheumatoid arthritis, tuberculosis, and so on;
• In ancient times, Nubia was considered the largest earner. Jewelers who made jewelry enjoyed special respect among citizens and were considered saints.

Who has more gold?

Not only the volume of production is subject to assessment, but also the size of the reserves of this element, which is in the country.

How much gold is there in the world and in which countries is there more precious metal?

• Australia is reported to have the most gold. Several serious deposits have been built on the territory of the country, in which there are more than 200,000 tons of metal;
• If you trust the statement of experts, then Russia has secured its second place. Here, in the depths of the rock, there are approximately 8,000 tons of precious metal;
• But Africa remains the undisputed leader in world production, but in terms of reserves it is in third place. The territory of South Africa still stores about 6,000 tons of gold.

The Geological Survey was responsible for all the research carried out, and the experts of this organization found that no more than 2,000 tons of gold remained in China.

It is problematic to accurately determine the amount of gold remaining on the planet, because experts take into account only the data that is available at the moment. Deposits that are under development, are used or will be processed in the very near future are subject to assessment. Possible mining sites are not taken into account, since such information can hardly be called reliable.

Comparing how much gold has been mined in the entire history of mankind, and how much remains, the question arises: where do people spend the metal? Everything is quite banal: mankind stores metal, since about 40-45% of all found gold is melted into ingots and is now considered the gold and foreign exchange reserves of most countries. The United States had the largest reserves of the metal in 1949, with about 22,000 tons in reserves.

Despite the fact that the inhabitants of the planet are trying to keep records of precious metals, they can still be puzzled. One of the serious events happened about 50 years ago, when the capital of Thailand decided to rearrange and restore the statue of Buddha. Previously, it was believed that the monument was made of stone. But upon dismantling, the cladding broke off and the workers saw that the Buddha was made of gold. The total weight of the statue was 5.5 tons.

Everyone knows how much gold is mined per year in the world, but no one knows what finds are still awaiting people. Only one thing is clear: love for the precious metal is constantly growing. People are ready to literally buy up precious metal, melt it into ingots, create jewelry, but mankind will not be able to afford to part with gold forever. People will search for it everywhere and will definitely find deposits.

Scientists believe that people have been mining the "solar" metal for about 6 thousand years. The first gold coins appeared in 550 BC in Lydia (Mediterranean), where the legendary Croesus ruled. Since then, they have spread rather quickly and entered the circulation of business settlements. When you are at war, pay the mercenaries in gold, you trade with overseas countries - again, pay with precious metal. But is it enough for everyone - that is the question.

They say that if all the gold mined in the history of mankind is collected in one place and melted down, you will get a rather modest figure - a cube with a facet height of about 20 meters. And how much of this metal is now in the world and where exactly it is concentrated - there are different opinions on this matter. Let's try to figure it out: the leading countries in terms of gold reserves - who they are, and what place Russia occupies in the ranking.

How the world's gold reserves are estimated

Thomson Reuters GFMS is responsible for such calculations. This organization publishes annual surveys of the global gold market. According to her, the reserves of "solar" metal are 171,300 tons. But there are other calculations as well. According to various sources, there are from 155 thousand to 2.5 million tons of gold on our planet. Why such a spread? Of course, no scrupulous accounting has been carried out over the centuries for the entire time of the extraction of the precious metal. In general, such information often referred to state or personal secrets.

For example, some researchers suggest that before the famous trip of Columbus to the shores of America (that is, before 1492), people washed about 13 thousand tons, while others argue that only about 300 tons. So, researcher James Turk explains this figure by the fact that mining until the Middle Ages was very primitive. Finding, developing and extracting precious metals was not easy, slow and dangerous. Therefore, such a large volume is simply impossible to obtain. Another researcher, Jen Skoils of the investment company The Real Asset Company, estimated that Tutankhamun's coffin alone was made of 1.5 tons of gold. But we know from school textbooks how they robbed the graves of kings and leaders, the tombs of the pharaohs. So it's not hard to imagine how much gold disappeared before the archaeologists got to them.

But even with modern stocks, not everything is in order in terms of valuation. The difference in calculations is striking in both tonnes and cost. Many analysts argue that the figures for global gold reserves are significantly underestimated. Who knows, perhaps the reason for this is conspiracy theories and secret conspiracies, or maybe it really is ... It is likely that the whole point is again in accounting. For example, it is not known exactly how much gold China mines. And in some countries, in particular, Colombia, there is a huge black market for precious metals. Of course, unaccounted for.

No one can give an exact figure how much metal is the color of the sun in the world.

But analysts and researchers say (and that's good news) that it will be enough for all of us for a long time. According to the US geological monitoring, about 52 thousand tons of "solar metal" are stored in the bowels of the Earth. In general, the amount of gold in the countries of the world is a kind of mysterious thing. And not very much is reliably known about this, although there is a huge amount of various information.

All the gold that has ever been extracted from the subsoil is still in circulation. This is an amazing fact. After all, just imagine that the wedding ring you are wearing is made of gold mined a thousand years ago ...

Recently, there has been a tendency to abandon the reuse of "solar" metal. This is due to the fact that modern industry uses gold for such small parts that the extraction and processing of milligrams of precious metal in the future is either impossible or economically unprofitable. According to the geological monitoring of the British Kingdom, about 12% is "thrown away" in this way.

Which countries have the largest deposits of precious metal

So, who is the "champion" in gold in the world? Summarizing various information, it can be argued that there are five states leaders in the field of its extraction.

1. China has been the largest player in the market since 2007. The mines are being actively developed in the country and abroad. Production volume: about 360 tons annually.
2. South Africa - an annual growth of 250 tons. According to experts, 15% of the world production of the yellow metal belongs to this country.
3. USA - 18 large and 32 small mines, most of which are located in the state of Nevada. It is there that most of the gold in the United States is mined (about 75%), and Alaska gives about 30 tons. The largest American mine (and the oldest) is Homestake, South Dakota. For 100 years, 1000 tons of solar metal have been extracted from its depths. In the last decade, geological exploration has intensified, and a number of new deposits have been discovered. Numerous experts consider the United States to be the undisputed leader in gold reserves.
4. Australia - 225 tons of precious metals are mined here per year. It is concentrated in the projections of the "Precambrian basement". Significant deposits are discovered in Western Australia, and small ones are scattered throughout the continent. The largest Australian mines: Boddington (21 t), Super Pit (21.5 t), St. Ives (14.5 t), Telfer (20 t).
5. Peru - 175 tons are mined here annually.

There are many such tables created by different authors. And the data in them does not always match. In addition, the list itself changes quite often, as the indicators of the extraction of precious metals in different countries... But the experts agree on this - that the global production of the yellow metal reached an all-time high in 2015. It increased by 1.8% to 3,211 tons, that is, the world's gold reserves are growing. Interestingly, much of this increase came from countries that were never even in the top ten. So, the production volume has been increased:

• by 18% Mexico;
• by 20% Indonesia;
• by 29% by Kazakhstan.

A lot of interesting things have been happening in this area lately. For example, gold production in South Africa is falling, and China has generally closed data on its production. At the same time, new mines began operating in Africa. In 2007, South Africa for the first time in 100 (!) Years lost ground, yielding the "prize" place in gold mining to China. This became a kind of sensation, because the Republic of South Africa has been a leader in this regard since 1896. The reasons for this decline are various: from political instability and the growth of protest movements in mines to the desire to save precious metals until better times and higher prices. Although it is believed that it is South Africa that has the largest reserves of gold in the world (and not at all the United States) and is ready to increase its production. The largest deposits in South Africa: Vaal River (23.5 tons), West Wits (22.5 tons). But, according to other sources, the explored reserves of the yellow metal on the planet are distributed in this way: most of them are in the United States, then South Africa and Russia, then China and Australia.

Experts and geologists believe that the Muruntau deposit (Uzbekistan, Kyzyl-Kum) is not only the largest open pit in the world (with a depth of about 580 m), but also the richest, with a high gold content in the ore. According to some estimates, these reserves range from two and a half thousand to 5300 tons of metal.

There are thousands of gold deposits on the territory of African states, but the sizes of these areas are extremely different. Gold reserves are available in 25 African countries, but in 21 of them the annual production does not exceed half a ton or is not produced at all.

South Africa and the Witwatersrand stand out sharply with an annual production of about 150 tons (in the last century, production reached 1000 tons per year), then Ghana (80 tons) and Zimbabwe (up to 8 tons). So, big gold Africa - in its three countries: South Africa, Ghana, Zimbabwe.

The most striking feature of the geological uniqueness of the African continent is its incomparable wealth in two subsoil products that crown beauty and value in the world of minerals and in the world of metals - diamonds and gold. It's not just about wealth. Africa is extremely rich in chromium, platinum, uranium, manganese, oil and other minerals. In terms of diamonds and gold, this continent is simply incomparable with others.

Witwatersrand, gold-uranium conglomerates

But does this Afrikaans name say anything to everyone: Witwatersrand (White Waters Ridge, White Waters Ridge)? It turns out that the existence of an amazing natural phenomenon, which are outstanding deposits of minerals, is not enough, it is also necessary that there was someone who would make a legend out of it. But the Witwatersrand is the case when the reality of the fantastic world of the geological past surpasses the shapes and sizes that imagination invented when describing the golden riches.

This is a deposit containing such an amount of gold that was beyond even the exaggeration allowed by the fabulous imagination. There are about 70 thousand tons of gold (about 2.2 trillion ounces) of which most have already been mined. (For comparison: the Klondike - 300 tons of gold, all of Alaska's already almost worked-out - 950 tons, California with its depleted placers and the famous Mother dwelling - 3300 tons, the USA for the entire time - about 10 thousand tons, Canada - 6.5 thousand tons. tons, Australia - 6 thousand tons). They give rise to the still mysterious plot of the most complex and extraordinary process of its formation that took place two billion years ago and lasted hundreds of millions of years, the mineralogy of its ores and other unique deposits surrounding it. The realities of the long road to discovering the entire length of this deposit are dramatic, a path that was accompanied by wars, the penetration of British imperialism, exchange battles, enrichment and ruin, the fatal role of gold in the fate of the peoples of the entire southern Africa.

Unlike all the romantic epics of the gold rush that attracted thousands of gold prospectors, there was no place for them here, only powerful gold mining companies were active here. It is a supplier of currency metal for the capitalist world represented by its leading countries, torn away from the economy of developing Africa. The flow of gold from the Witwatersrand conglomerates has been of particular importance to the capitalist monetary system for nearly a century. A special reciprocal relationship existed between South African mining and the gold standard for the British pound sterling and the American dollar.

The discovery of the Witwatersrand was preceded by a lengthy 400-year prologue. Between the voyage of the Portuguese Bartolomeo Dias, who first circled the southern tip of Africa in 1486 - the Cape of Storms, renamed the Cape of Good Hope, and the discovery of a gold-bearing conglomerate reef in the Transvaal in 1886 - exactly four centuries. The pursuit of gold stubbornly bypassed the African continent. The city on the cape - Kapstadt, or Cape Town, was founded in 1652 by the Dutch East India Company just as an intermediate port, as a "sea tavern" on the way to the "fabulous riches of the East" - to India, past South Africa, past its unsuspecting, riches in gold and diamonds incomparable with countries.

And yet it was the Cape colony of immigrants from Holland, who called themselves Boers (farmers, peasants), who were joined by the French Huguenots at the end of the 17th century (after Louis XIV abolished the edict on religious tolerance), which was occupied by the British first after the Great French Revolution, and then finally, in 1806, it was this southern edge of the continent, the most distant from the European countries, that became the initial springboard for their penetration into the depths of Africa.

The territory of the Cape colony is located within a narrow strip of Paleozoic folding in the extreme southwest of the continent, similar to the same strip in the extreme northwest of the continent and completely alien to the geology of the most ancient African platform. The first step to the riches of this ancient platform was to go beyond the Cape geological formation.

This happened under special circumstances, characteristic of the time of the "hundred years of the Kaffir wars" and "a hundred years of injustice", when the British drove the Boers, and the Boers and the British - the Bantu and Zulu into the interior of the continent. The "Great Track" of the Boers, their great resettlement in 1836-1838. A thousand kilometers away in caravans of wagons from the country of their ancestors - the Cape colony to the "promised land" - Natal in southeast Africa, and then crossing the Drakensberg mountains led to the formation of two Boer republics here: the Orange (Orange Free State) and the Transvaal (formerly called The Republic of South Africa, as the entire state began to be called from 1962, including the provinces of Cape, Natal, Orange and Transvaal).

The great ledge of the Drakensberg Mountains was a steep cliff that separated them from the coast of the ocean, but towards the continent the mountains descended gently, in steps of the most extensive flat plateaus, here called the velds. The High Veld Plateau, adjacent to the Drakensberg Mountains, is crossed along the right bank of the Waal by the Witwatersrand Ridge, within which the Central Rand mines are located around Johannesburg, and north of the ridge and north of Pretoria is the vast Bushveld Basin with its intrusive massifs containing unique platelets and platelets. The Witwatersrand serves as a watershed for the tributaries of rivers flowing into different oceans. Between Baal and r. Orange province, which crosses almost all of southern Africa and flows into the Atlantic Ocean, where the largest diamond placers are being developed in Alexander Bay, is the Orange province (formerly a republic). A diamond-bearing kimberlite pipe was found near the confluence of the Waal and Orange near Kimberley, due to which the border between the Cape and Orange provinces was shifted so that the pipe ended up in the Cape Province, which was then an English colony. Beyond the Vaal and up to the Limpopo flowing into the Indian Ocean (to the border with Zimbabwe), starting from the Witwatersrand, is the Transvaal.

Here, two "pastoral" Protestant poorest farming Boer republics, which arose as an "exodus", a flight a thousand kilometers beyond the Drakensberg mountains, from English dependence, as a desire to protect their "predetermined from above" right of the "people of masters" to manage their affairs, found a place for their settlements, not suspecting that under their feet in these endless desert lands are hidden the richest deposits of gold and diamonds, which will overturn their Protestant-pastoral way of life and bring crowds of immigrant gold miners, businessmen and industrialists, entail war, colonization, development of industry ... On the site of the Langlaagte Remote Farm in the Central Rand, a city of gold will grow, between whose skyscrapers this farm will remain as a historical monument.

The strongest impression made all over the world, first by the California gold rush (1848-1849), and then by the Australian (1851-1852), which marked the beginning of the ore history of two continents and the beginning recent history gold had two consequences for South Africa. On the one hand, these fevers created here an atmosphere of intense anticipation of possible gold discoveries, but, on the other hand, they fatally influenced the direction of the search, the mindset of gold prospectors, who were looking for here only placers and quartz veins, without assuming the possibility of the existence of something completely different. type of deposits.

The main event in the prehistory of the Witwatersrand was not the echoes of the overseas gold rushes, but the diamond rush, in an area of \u200b\u200bSouth Africa called Kimberley, 450 km southwest of the Witwatersrand. In 1867-1868. individual diamonds were found here, but only the discovery in 1869 of a large stone that became the "Star of South Africa" \u200b\u200bentailed a systematic search that ended in 1987 with the discovery of the world's first primary diamond deposit - the first kimberlite pipe. This was the beginning of a new era for diamonds, the beginning of the predominance of Africa in their mining, the beginning of the modern history of geological exploration of Africa.

In the case of the Witwatersrand, to discover a deposit meant first of all to understand that the outcrops of conglomerate strata protruding on the steppe surface with long low ridges, which were crossed many times by prospectors, local and American "ore field inspectors", past which they passed, as if past waste rock, they represent a new type of geological formation containing gold.

Probably one of the first who managed to overcome the inertia of the California stereotype of thinking Fred Struben, an experienced prospector who knew geology, passed the Pilgrims Rest, who already in 1884 not only realized that this could be a new type of deposits, but also installed crushers and received the first ounces gold from conglomerates. However, he failed to attack a reservoir with an industrial grade of gold. This fell to the lot of J. Harrison and J. Walker, who worked for him, who, having moved to work on the Langlaagte farm of the widow Oostuisen, discovered the outcrops of the Main Reef in April 1886 here.

For almost a hundred years since the golden Witwatersrand (or simply Rand) became famous, there has always been one burning and grandiose idea that has captured more than one prospect and industrialist with its alluring mystery and the size of the stake behind it: the opportunity to find a continuation of Rand under overlying sediments, to find "New Rand", before which the already found will seem only a small part. On this path there were many rash decisions, unfounded fantastic assumptions that ruined many, caused the collapse and bankruptcy of more than one syndicate. But in the end, after a long and arduous search, reality exceeded the wildest expectations and repeatedly abruptly changed ideas not only about the size and number of ore fields, but even about the very significance of the deposit.

From the very beginning, I was struck by the enormous extent of the gold-bearing layer of conglomerates, called Main Reef, that is, the Main Reef, traced along its entire length at a distance of about 45 km. It was the Central Rand (with Johannesburg in the middle of it) and the adjacent Western Rand and the Eastern (Middle) Rand without interruption. The reef is the apt name given to the ore-bearing strata of the conglomerates by sailors who abandoned their ships for the gold rush; for them, the ridges of conglomerates protruding on the surface were like reefs formed at sea by rocky ridges of rocks protruding above the water. The oxidized surface varieties of conglomerate reefs were called banquets, the Dutch name for almond candy. But rather quickly, the upper horizons were mined and replaced by bedrock ores with a dense structure and high sulfide content, which ultimately led to the need to use the cyanidation method as the main method of obtaining gold from ore.

This year 1890 was also the year of the "first deep horizon boom." Prior to this, the prospect of the deposit at depth was not highly estimated. It was considered impossible to extend the ore layers to significant depths. It was common at that time to mine gold ores to only tens of meters, rarely - the first hundreds of meters of depth. Therefore, although production was already quite significant (13.7 tons in 1890), the total reserves seemed sufficient for only a few years of development.

But in December 1889, a well known as Village Main, on the very outskirts of Johannesburg, underwent an ore bed at what appeared to be an enormous depth of 160 m (517 ft). Since that time, wells began to be laid deeper and deeper. A sensation was the Rand Deep Levels well ("Rand's Deep Horizons"), which reached 360 m of ore, but then the whole world got around the news about the Rand Victoria well, which crossed the ore-bearing reef at an incredible depth of 703 m (now the mine workings have sunk by about 3800 m ).

Several conclusions followed from this "deep horizon boom". First of all, since the ore layer is inclined to the south, at such depths it will go beyond the area of \u200b\u200bapplications (45 by 120 m). Companies that were the first to appreciate this managed to secretly buy up all the continuation of the land plots south of the reef exit. Then the individual landlords disappeared completely, giving way to large companies, since already at that time the construction of a deep mine required an investment of about 650 thousand pounds.

Finally, industrialists, stock traders, stockholders began dreamily to calculate: if the reefs maintain a constant gold content within blocks to a depth of 300 meters ... 500 meters ... 1000 meters ..., then the total amount of gold will be worth millions and millions of pounds.

But the discovery of the continuation of the reefs to a depth and the assessment of the huge size of the deposit in the early 1890s had even more important political consequences that finally determined the fate of the relationship between the Transvaal and Great Britain and led to the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902.

The prospectors were impressed by the amazing continuity of the reefs for many tens of kilometers along the strike and hundreds of meters in depth, with the extraordinary constancy of their main features. The further history of the long-term discovery of the field is the history of searches for the continuation of reefs in other areas.

Far East Rand in South Africa

The first finds in the Far East Rand were made already in 1889 in its extreme areas adjacent to the East Rand, separated from it by forty kilometers of empty barren territory in the Nigel area, which turned out to be the eastern end of the entire Rand. The area between them, containing no outcrops of reefs, was considered the "Boksburg hiatus" in the distribution of the ore bed. Indeed, nothing on the surface allowed one to suspect that all this expanse of the flat plain contained in its depths a powerful and continuous continuation up to Nigel at the depth of gold-bearing reefs. The trick also consisted in the fact that here the latitudinal strike characteristic of the entire length of the Rand was replaced by the southeast and, due to the bending of the ore-bearing strata, they turned to the southeast.

Success came through the gradual advancement of boreholes beyond Main Reef through what was considered the Boksburg Break. Gradually, the entire area of \u200b\u200bthis "break" became a continuous ore field of the Far Eastern Rand.

The story is about the farmer Vilém Pransloo, one of those who did not succumb to the gold rush, on whose farm gold was found while searching for the eastern extension of the Rand. After much persuasion for a large sum, he was persuaded to sell his farm to a gold mining company. He moved to another farm, but there was Rand's continuation. After even more difficult negotiations and at an even higher price, he was persuaded to sell this farm too. Then he moved away from Rand to the Pretoria area. And it was on his new farm that Tom Cullinan found the diamond that opened the famous Premier kimberlite pipe.

The beginning of development in the Far East Rand dates back to 1914-1916, that is, 28-30 years after the discovery of the Central Rand. Since the 1950s, twenty of its mines have produced between three quarters and half of Rand's output. Almost 20 more years passed before the Far West Rand was discovered.

During this time, two more major discoveries took place in South Africa: in 1924 - the famous Mereiskiy platinum reef in the Bushveld massif north of Pretoria, and in 1926 on the Atlantic coast at the mouth of the river. The Alexander Bay diamond placers were found in Orange.

From Johannesburg to Pretoria, only about 35 km, south of Johannesburg stretches the gold-bearing reef of the world's largest gold deposit, and north of Pretoria - one of the largest deposits of platinum and chromium in the unique Bushveld massif and diamond-bearing kimberlite pipes breaking through it with the largest of them the Premier pipe.

Unlike the East Rand, which merges into the Far East Rand, the western end of the Rand is cut off by a fault, beyond which all traces of the Main Reef are lost. But geological exploration gave hope that an extension of the Witwatersrand series might lie between the West Rand and the old Boer city, the trekker capital of Potchefstroom. But here to the southwest they are overlain by thick lavas and heavily watered dolomites. The excavation of the mine, which began here in 1902, had to be stopped due to the huge inflows of water from the dolomites, and the borehole, driven to 780 m, was abandoned, not reaching, as it later turned out, only 240 m before the opening of the Main Reef.

A different approach was needed to search for deep seams under overlapping 1000-meter strata. In 1930, geophysical work was carried out here: with the help of a magnetometer, the position at a depth of magnetite-bearing thin shale strata dividing the lower and upper ore-bearing sections of the Witwatersrand series was traced. After locating the deep surface of this section, geologist Carlton Jones identified the boreholes that in 1932 underwent the Main Reef and other reefs in the area now known as the Far West Rand. In 1934, construction began on the first two mines near Ventspost and Westonaria, followed by four mines south of Carltonville, including Western Deep Levels ("Western Deep Horizons"), which became the deepest mine in the world.

The discovery of seven mines in the Klerksdorp region, 65 km southwest of the Far West Rand, dates back to the same period. For Rand's 50th birthday and even before recent years After a long and persistent search and geological research of the Second World War, the size of this - already gigantic - deposit seemed to be definitively established. However, there were still two major discoveries ahead, each of which dramatically changed the idea of \u200b\u200bits meaning. If the gold Witwatersrand arose at the end of the last century on the wave of gold rushes that swept across three continents, then at the end of the Second World War, on the wave of the uranium boom, it acquired its second significance as one of the main uranium deposits. In 1886 it was understood that the Rand conglomerate reefs represented a new type of gold-bearing ore, in 1944 it was understood that this was a type of gold-uranium deposit. It is not enough to say that uranium was found in it, it turned out that the ore for gold, the gold-bearing cement of conglomerates itself, is at the same time uranium ore. Next to rare microscopic and submicroscopic gold grains are the same microscopic grains of uraninite and brannerite. Sometimes even intergrowths of gold with uraninite are observed. The unusual microscopic microscopic observation of bright gold grains coalescence with velvety black uraninite is the mineralogical symbol of the Witwatersrand.

These ores contain 30-50 times more uraninite than gold. But since gold is many times a rarer element of the earth's crust than uranium, Rand's reserves of tens of thousands of tons are a unique phenomenon, and hundreds of thousands of tons of uranium are only one of the largest deposits. Income from gold mining here in the last century was about 90%, and from uranium about 10%,

Moreover, the uranium content here (on average 0.03%) is 4-7 times less than in the deposits of the USA, Canada and Australia. However, since uranium is mined here along with gold, the cost of obtaining it is the lowest. Driving of mines and drifts, mining of millions of tons of ore, crushing, grinding, processing - all this is done to extract gold, and uranium is extracted from the waste of this mining.

The Witwatersrand took on a new dimension in one year. The same previously found reefs, the same Rand mines immediately moved into a new category - gold-uranium. Here gold and uranium came together - two metals with the most dramatic fate, one with a six-thousand-year history, the other in one year surpassed all the troubles that gold brought with its terrible threat.

Uranus at the Witwatersrand has been discovered twice. Already in 1915, the radioactivity of gold-bearing conglomerates was discovered, which was attributed to the presence of traces of radium in them. In 1923, R. A. Cooper, in the mineralogical study of concentrates from concentrating plants, determined the constant presence of uraninite in them. But at that time, uranium ores in very small quantities and from very rich deposits were mined mainly for the production of radium, the world demand for which then did not exceed 25 g. At that time, Witwatersrand uranium was regarded as "of no practical value."

A complete revaluation of values \u200b\u200btook place 20 years later. The creation of the atomic bomb has raised the geology of uranium as one of the primary problems. All types of mineral deposits began to be considered as possible sources of radioactive raw materials. Then prof. J.W.Bane of the US Atomic Energy Commission discovered a forgotten article by Cooper on the finding of uraninite in the ores of a major gold mine. The Geiger counter pointed to the uranium content in the museum samples of the Rand conglomerates. A secret mission by J.W. Bane and C.F. Davidson, chief geologist of the UK Atomic Energy Department, led to the assessment of the Witwatersrand as the largest deposit of poor uranium ores, which, however, is profitable to be mined along with gold.

In 1952, the first uranium plant, West Rand Consolidated Maine, began extracting uranium from four of Rand's mines.

Note that the fate of Rand's uranium ores is closely related to the fate of his gold. Only as long as gold mining continues, will it be profitable to extract the same uranium ores in most mines.

Orange gold field

It seemed incredible that after almost 60 years of development and exploration of the deposit, not just another continuation of the conglomerate strata could be found, but a huge ore field of the same order as the Central, Far Eastern or Far Western Rand. This time, the discovery took place not beyond Vaal, that is, no longer in the Transvaal, but on the southern side of Waal, in the Orange Province (called the Orange Free State, as in the days of the Boer republics).

As with all discoveries in the Witwatersrand, there was an early prehistory here, a lengthy unsuccessful and ruinous quest before success came.

Here, on an endless plain covered with steppe grasses or plantings of corn, there were almost no outcrops of rocks, and the ore beds were overlain by thick strata of lava flows of the Ventersdorp Series. Although the geologist A.S. Sawyer already in 1907 came to the conclusion about the distribution of the Witwatersrand conglomerates south of Waal and made a report about the "new gold-ore Rand in the Orange province", the boreholes he had been laying for several years did not go beyond love Ventersdorp.

Then, in 1932, two enthusiasts far from geology and mining, attorney 3. Jacobson and dental technician Allan Roberts (named after him the city of Allanridge in the upper part of the Orange Ore Field), together with Prospector A. Megson, who had worked with Sawyer, got the idea find "new Rand in Orange". The drilling they began in October 1933 at the Aadenk farm, near Odendalsrues, lasted endless months, and the well did not come out of the solid green lavas of Ventersdorp, until in February 1935, at a depth of 1220 m, the partners ran out of funds.

In 1939, after many unsuccessful attempts, a well at St. Helena's farm in the same place, near Odendalsrews, underwent the ore-bearing Basal Reef. The outbreak of the Second World War caused the termination of all these search operations.

Only after the end of the war, 11 years after the Aadenka well was stopped, it was decided to continue drilling, and just 120 m later, the well entered the ore body. In the early post-war years, an extensive drilling program was undertaken in this area. In the belt from Waal to Virginia, 480 wells were drilled at a distance of about 140 km. On April 16, 1946, it was officially announced that the Geduld # 1 well had hit the Basal Reef and sampling showed a very high gold grade. This sparked the longest and most feverish boom on the London and other exchanges, where sales of shares in the Orange Gold Field surpassed all records. This ore field stretches 70 km from Allanridge through Odendalsrews, Welcom to Virginia and is being developed by the ore companies of twelve mines.

From here to Johannesburg more than 220 km, to Klerksdorp 100 km of barren space, and the Orange plateau is far from the "ridge of white waters". However, since the ore horizons of all these fields belong to the same rock series, they are united by a common composition, structure, and origin. The orange ore field, like Klerksdorp, Far West Rand, Central Rand, Far East Rand, sometimes separated by tens of kilometers of empty space, should be considered parts of one deposit - the Witwatersrand, meaning by this name not the ridge where it was originally found, but a series rocks, including conglomerate reefs, designated the Witwatersrand Series by the name of the ridge, but continuing as a mature bed over a vast area on both sides of the Waal.

But this was not the last find. In the 1950s, 200 km east of Johannesburg, after 45 km of barren space from the outskirts of the Far East Rand, the Evander ore field was found, "the very far eastern Rand", where from 1955-1959. three new mines began to produce products. Finally, it should be said that, in addition to gold and uranium, up to 240 kg per year of the rarest minerals are extracted from ore concentrates - natural alloys of the heaviest metals osmium and iridium, as well as a few small (up to one carat) diamonds. Pyrite, which is part of the cement of conglomerates, is isolated to obtain sulfuric acid, which is used here in the processing of ores.

Geological origin of the Witwatersrand

The events of the Proterozoic time, which led to the formation of this deposit, unfold before us as one of the most grandiose pictures of geological nature:

• its origins are in the Archean, about 3 billion years ago;
• the formation of the ore-bearing strata - in the upper part of the Early Proterozoic, about 2 billion years ago;
• ore metamorphism - in the middle of the Riphean, about a billion years ago.

Much of what happened here in such distant times, during such long periods, was restored, it was possible to explain the main features of the origin of the deposit. Now it is presented as an ancient placer, buried and metamorphosed.

In Rand's conglomerate reefs, first of all, quartz pebbles are striking, sterile in their whiteness, blueness, sometimes smokiness - these are pebbles - almost only quartz, about 2 cm in size, completely barren and even sulfide-free, not quartzites and not quartz from granites, but rounded fragments of barren quartz veins. These pebbles fill 70-80% of the rock and are immersed in cement, also mainly of quartz composition - from small cemented sand grains - with flakes of sericite, chlorite, pyrophyllite, sometimes with visible pyrite.

And only a very insignificant part of the cement is composed of the smallest ore grains of more than seventy mineral types. All the exciting mineralogical wealth of cement is revealed through microscopic observation. Here are the smallest, in thousandths of a millimeter, dark yellow high-grade gold grains, the same minute black uraninite, uranium resin, brannerite (uranium titanate), hydrocarbons with uranium and thorium (tucholite), strange greenish color, small diamonds, the color of which is caused by irradiation with uranium, rare minerals osmium, iridium, ruthenium, platinum, "pyrite shot" of rounded grains ranging in size from 0.5 mm to 2-3 mm, and many different rarer minerals.

The main controversial issue of the origin of the entire deposit is the question of the formation of these ore minerals of cement: whether these are clastic minerals that have fallen into placers from destroyed older rocks, or hydrothermal, arising from deep ore-bearing solutions that spread through more permeable quartz-pebble conglomerates. The most difficult thing was to imagine the preservation of easily oxidized pyrite and uraninite in placers, especially in the smallest grains. But the features of the Early Proterozoic era allow this, since in this lifeless time with the desert land, the atmosphere was anoxic and restorative. The isotopic determination of the absolute age could resolve the dispute: is it more ancient than the conglomerates, preserved during the destruction of the Archean granites, or formed after the solidification and immersion of the conglomerates. But the measurement results are ambiguous due to the fact that the later removal of radiogenic lead violates the isotope ratio. Apparently, the obtained values \u200b\u200bof 2.7 billion years correspond to the age of the uranium mineralization of the Witwatersrand, while other determinations of about two and one billion years indicate the repeated subsequent metamorphism of the ores.

The presence of chlorite, sericite, pyrophyllite corresponds to the metamorphism of the green shale facies. Microscopic observations reveal, along with the detrital appearance of diamonds, monazite, zircon, osmium-iridium, etc., a complex history of gold, which has undergone repeated recrystallization, often present in the form of intergrowths with pyrite, uraninite, columnar tucholite, the presence of secondary uranium minerals replacing uraninite, many other metamorphogenic and hydrothermal (sulfide) minerals. Liquid inclusions of relict Proterozoic solutions preserved in some of the secondary minerals indicate high temperature their education.

The position of these conglomerates in the thickness enclosing them also makes one think. This is not one layer of ore-bearing conglomerates, but about twenty layers that are not in any one suite, but occur throughout the Early and Middle Proterozoic strata, from its lowest system, including the Dominion Reef, located unconformably on the Archean granites and gneisses , up to its uppermost system, called the Transvaal and including the Black Reef (Black Reef), above which there is only one Upper Proterozoic system, Watersberg, and then it is already Paleozoic. The main ore bearing, containing the largest number of the richest reefs, is the Witwatersrand system, subdivided into lower and upper sections, which are further subdivided into formations, formations - into horizons, horizons - into units and layers, among which “reefs” are distinguished. The formations are usually named after the most important reefs they comprise. The most important are Main Reef and Bird Reef, which are part of the Main Bird Formation.

It is amazing that over, perhaps, hundreds of millions of years, when sediments of almost the entire Proterozoic were deposited in this part of Africa, these extremely specific, unique in subsequent eras, conditions for the formation of metal-bearing pebble-sand placers, which turned into conglomerates, were constantly repeated with invariability - reefs. This classic simplicity of million-year-old giant rhythms of the advancing and receding sea, subsidence and uplifts of the desert land, on which there was not a single plant, not a single creature, manifested itself in the alternation of conglomerates, quartzites, shales, lava flows, making up a thickness of more than 10 thousand m thick. As soon as the sea receded, ore-bearing conglomerates were formed. And all this time, special conditions for the accumulation of simultaneously large-pebble conglomerates and extremely fine-grained ores had to be implemented, not just a source of placer minerals destroyed by the surf, waves and currents, but a whole set of deposits or rocks, some of which gave gold, others - uraninite, had to be preserved, the third - osmium-iridium, diamonds, pyrite, and finally, the largest barren quartz veins should have existed. And all this happened not on the scale of a buried river placer, but over a huge area of \u200b\u200bhundreds of square kilometers, in strata created by coastal sea placers, deltas and channels of paleorek rivers, by sediments of the periodically flooded plain.

This peculiar, long-term phenomenon, which occurred only in one Proterozoic epoch, was repeated in the form of the same gold-uranium conglomerates on different continents - in Canada, where the largest uranium deposit Blind River with non-industrial gold was formed, in smaller sizes in Brazil (in Serra de -Jacobina), in Finland, Australia, Ghana.

To search for the continuation of the ore fields and assess the prospects for Rand, it was important to determine how the reefs spread, why they are interrupted, how long it can be hoped that they will continue into the depths and beyond the current Rand. The conglomerate strata would extend evenly and horizontally, limited only by the size of the ancient inland sea, if their deposition and subsequent tectonic influences did not lead to the most complex structure of the field.

The ancient topography of the bottom and coastal plain, outcrops of Archean granite domes, then breaks in sedimentation, erosion of layers by ancient rivers, the formation of powerful ancient deltas, destruction of rocks by erosion with the emergence of powerful weathering crusts - all this influenced the structure of the sedimentary strata. This was followed by the formation of a large syncline, the axis of which runs from Central Rand to Rand in the Orange province. This multilayer bowl of rocks with a steep dip in the upper parts of the strata, flattening with depth, is complicated by shallower folding, broken by faults, shears, thrusts, the upper parts were washed away, the lower ones, thrown off, sunk to very great depths. Therefore, only fragments have survived from this bowl that make up the ore fields, separated by vast gaps.

Rand's Gold - South African Treasure

That gold is a commodity to be produced and sold at a profit is most evident in the Witwatersrand. This is not gold sand washed up in a tray, not nuggets found by a successful prospector, not "Bonanza", "ore pillars", "hurricane" samples, not the fleeting finds of the richest, but transient deposits, not a game of chance, not a roulette with a random unearned win, not luck in the search lottery, where the winning of one comes from the labor and failure of many.

The Witwatersrand is a gold production facility that has been in operation for nearly 130 years and will continue to operate for a long time. Hundreds of tons of gold are mined here and there are no gold rushes, except for exchange and currency rushes. Gold does not cause the joy of discovery and good luck, gold ore is mined here, like ore for iron, copper, uranium and other metals.

Here, the invisible gold of the conglomerate reefs is non-alchemically transformed into the dark yellow gold bars of the Reserve Bank cellars. Everything determines the ratio of production costs and world prices for gold, the difference is the profit appropriated by the owners and shareholders of gold mining companies, banks, the state treasury.

But gold is a special commodity, associated with a special relationship with the money with which the commodity is paid. Under the conditions of the existence of the gold standard (until 1932, with the temporary abandonment of it in 1919-1925), gold had a constant, strictly fixed price: 85 shillings per ounce of pure gold on the London market. In this case, the profits of gold mining companies were entirely determined by the size of the costs of gold production. “Market conditions” were excluded as a factor influencing their profits. So, the revenue per ounce of gold sold in 1932 was 85 shillings, and the costs were 60 shillings, as a result, the profit per ounce was 25 shillings.

With the production of 360 tons, i.e. 11.5 million ounces, the profit was about 14 million pounds. With the price of gold fixed, inflation, which increased costs, reduced profits. On the contrary, the world crisis of 1929-1932, having lowered the cost of materials and labor, contributed to a decrease in costs and thereby such a paradoxical phenomenon as the growth of profits of gold mining companies during the crisis years.

After the abandonment of the gold standard and the abolition of the fixed price of gold, this price began to grow almost continuously: 154 shillings in 1939, 168 shillings in 1939-1944, 172 shillings in 1946-1949, more than 248 shillings in 1949 -1953 biennium At the same time, although the inflation accompanying this growth contributed to the growth of costs, the growth in the price of gold and, accordingly, in the profits of gold mines significantly outstripped the increase in costs. So, in 1952, with the cost of producing an ounce of gold at 181 shillings, the price of 248 shillings, the profit per ounce was 67 shillings. With the Mining of 367.5 tons, or 11.8 million ounces of gold, the profit increased to 38.8 million pounds sterling (all calculations related to gold at that time were carried out in British pounds and shillings).

After the British dominion of the Union of South Africa in 1961 seceded from the collapsed British Empire and became the Republic of South Africa, the price of gold began to be calculated in rand (the currency of South Africa, named after the almighty Witwatersrand for it, equal to approximately $ 1.20 USA), and in the world market mainly in dollars.

The main component of costs at the Rand mines has always been wages. Using the exceptionally cheap labor of Africans was the main way to reduce production costs and increase profits.

Africans make up about 80% of the total workforce. In 1936, the wages of "black" miners were 10 times less than the wages of "white" miners, 14 times less than the wages of workers in the Canadian gold mines; in the 1970s, it became 20 times smaller.

The difference between R360.8 per month for Whites and R18.3 for Blacks multiplied by 250,000 workers per year is over R1 billion. This is where the South African gold industry's profit comes from. Rand's gold is the stolen labor of hundreds of thousands of Africans working at extreme depths, barely tolerated temperature and humidity, in silica dust and uranium ore dust.

Unlike all other gold deposits, which manifested themselves in individual outbreaks of production, the Witwatersrand for almost a hundred years, throughout the entire recent history of gold, the entire era of the formation and development of monopoly capitalism, was the main and constant source of gold supply to the channels of the world monetary and financial system.

Rand's Gold and the British Empire: The British Empire, while it existed, was an almost monopoly supplier of gold to the world market, its main source was the Union of South Africa (along with the former parts of the empire: Canada, Australia, India, the Gold Coast, Rhodesia).

Rand and USA Gold: after World War I, the United States became an almost monopoly buyer of South African gold, with most of the United States' gold reserves coming from the Rand mines.

South African gold contributed to the possibility of a longer preservation of the gold standard and gold backing of currencies, the departure from which gave rise to far-reaching trends in the monetary system of developed countries.