Gold Discovery in Egypt They mined gold in Nubia around 2450 BC. An Egyptian alchemist named Zosimos was the first to find pure gold (24 centuries before Columbus reached the Americas). The discovery of gold is attributed to the ancient Egyptians, who made jewelry out of gold.
Discovery of gold in Australia
There had been multiple gold finds in New South Wales (Bathurst and Monaro), Tasmania and what would become Victoria prior to the 'official' discovery of the precious metal by Edward Hargraves near Orange in 1851.
Archaeologists cannot pinpoint an exact moment in human history when gold was discovered, but traces have been found in ancient caves dating back to 40,000 BC. Gold proved to be a popular metal to ancient peoples due to the natural, malleable state in which it is found in nature.
The ancient Romans used the Latin word aurum to describe gold. Romans weren't the first civilization to encounter gold, but they invented many improvements to mine and extract precious metals.
On February 12, 1851, a prospector discovered flecks of gold in a waterhole near Bathurst, New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Soon, even more gold was discovered in what would become the neighboring state of Victoria. This began the Australian Gold Rush, which had a profound impact on the country's national identity.
Australia is estimated to have the world's largest gold reserves, with 9,500 tonnes or 17 per cent of the total world estimated gold reserves of 57,000 tonnes.
Chinese miners
There were over 11,000 Chinese on the New South Wales goldfields of Armidale, Bathurst, Binalong, Braidwood, Burrangong, Lambing Flat (Young), Carcoar, Lachlan, Mudgee, Tambaroora, Tamworth and Tumut.
All of the gold that's deposited in our planet was formed during the explosions of stars and collisions of asteroids, and eventually found its way to earth over time.
Traditionally, gold in the universe is thought to have formed by the r-process (rapid neutron capture) in supernova nucleosynthesis, but more recently it has been suggested that gold and other elements heavier than iron may also be produced in quantity by the r-process in the collision of neutron stars.
Gold is the most non-reactive of all metals and does not rust. Gold is so pliable that it can be made into sewing thread. Gold can conduct heat and electricity. Apart from copper and caesium, Gold is the only non-white coloured metal.
Where Does Gold Occur? All of the gold found on Earth came from the debris of dead stars. As the Earth formed, heavy elements such as iron and gold sank toward the planet's core. If no other event had occurred, there would be no gold in the Earth's crust.
One of the main reasons is its rarity. Gold is a finite resource that is not easily found in large quantities. Because of this, mining and refining gold is a complex and expensive process, which further contributes to the metal's high cost.
In Australia this concentration of gold took place in the Earth hundreds of millions of years ago in the eastern states, and thousands of millions of years ago in Western Australia. As well as gold, the fluids can carry other dissolved minerals, such as quartz. This is why gold is often found with quartz.
Cadia Mine in New South Wales, was the largest gold-producing mine in Australia, producing approximately 764.9 thousand ounces of gold and an estimated 32.5 million metric tons per annum (mmtpa) of Run-of-Mine (ROM) in 2021.
Considered by most authorities to be the biggest gold nugget ever found, the Welcome Stranger was found at Moliagul, Victoria, Australia, in 1869 by John Deason and Richard Oates. It weighed gross, over 2,520 troy ounces (78 kg; 173 lb) and returned over 2,284 troy ounces (71.0 kg; 156.6 lb) net.
Where is All the Gold? The World Gold Council estimates that miners have historically extracted a total of 201,296 tonnes of gold, leaving another 53,000 tonnes left in identified underground reserves.
What makes Dahlonega gold so different from other gold found around the world is the purity. Dahlonega has the purest gold in the world, which is 98.7 percent pure.
About 244,000 metric tons of gold has been discovered to date (187,000 metric tons historically produced plus current underground reserves of 57,000 metric tons).
Unlike most rocky, icy asteroids, the Psyche asteroid—located between Mars and Jupiter—contains a motherlode of metal, including gold, iron, and nickel. And the estimated value of all that metal? About $700 quintillion.
The short answer to the questions posed in this article title is: Yes! gold traces have indeed been identified within the lunar soil. Back in October 2009, NASA conducted a mission called LCROSS, which involved crashing a booster rocket into the Moon at nearly 6,000 miles per hour.
South Africa and the US host two each of the world's ten largest gold mines, while Indonesia, Russia, Papua New Guinea, Chile, Australia, and the Dominican Republic house the remaining. South Deep gold mine in South Africa has the largest gold deposits in the world.
But there's evidence that Captain Cook was really three centuries too late. You see in the 1420s Australia's west and east coasts were visited and charted by the Chinese. In fact in a great surge of navigation and discovery the Chinese mapped much of the world in the 1420s.
In a book titled 1421: The Year China Discovered the World Gavin Menzies claims that in the 1420's several fleets of Chinese ships sailed around the world, making contact with many countries before Europeans explored them, including Australia.
The gold colour represents the golden wattle (Acacia pycnantha), which is Australia's national flower. The uniforms of Australia's national sports teams are usually green and gold. The golden wattle flower, and the colours green and gold, are also featured on the Coat of arms of Australia.