Where Is Gold Found?

By Author: Bob Ethan
Total Articles: 41
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Where is Gold Found?Where is Gold Found? The Major Sources of Gold in the World

Gold is well-known mineral that touches all of our lives, but all people have, at some point in their lives, wondered where we find gold. That's because it doesn't just appear in ring form wrapped around your finger or in bullion form locked in a vault somewhere. Gold must be first discovered, then removed from the earth before it can be transformed into treasures like rings and bullion.

The main source of gold on this planet for the last 120 years has been the Witwatersrand Basin in South Africa. Given the nickname "The Rand", it provided forty percent of the gold in the world during those 120 years. Much of the earth's untapped gold resources are believed to remain there, with some estimates saying that the proportion is up to one third.

Where is gold found? Primarily China, USA, South Africa, and Australia.After South Africa, the next biggest producer of gold has been the US. Especially Nevada which is the biggest producing state, but also other states like California, Alaska, and Colorado.

Next after the USA ...
... is Australia, the third most prolific gold producer in the world. Gold was first discovered there near Ophir, New South Wales, and today is primarily mined in the Goldfields-Esperance and Pilbara regions of Western Australia, and at Bendigo, Victoria. The largest open-air mine in Australia is the Super-Pit gold mine in Kalgoorie, a community in the Goldfields/Esperance region, and extends over eight square kilometers. It is an overwhelming sight to behold.

The above three countries have been the biggest gold producing nations over the last century. But if we measure only the current year's production, China has become the world's largest producer of gold, taking South Africa's number one status in 2007. Other countries such as the United States, Canada, and Australia actually have more extensive gold reserves than China. However, the low cost of labor and production in China, as well as recent capital expansion and increase in foreign investment, have propelled China's production rate ahead of the other more naturally abundant countries.
Where is gold found? Find more detailed answers to that question and others at The Gold Market blog.