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Find out everything about how gold is made for gold retail stores
Time of publication - 2022.02.11
The cycle of gold beings all the way when starts formed and end up in gold retail stores as beautiful shiny bars. It might sound superficial, but there is a complex process behind it.
Gold retail stores offer to buy gold bars that are one of the most reliable investment options. This is also a tangible asset that doesn't require much space for spacekeeping.
What this process is like? It is hard to frame it in one continuous sequence. Many different sources talk about different methods. Search no longer, as we uncover the journey from gold’s formation to the refined pure gold bars in gold retail stores with the following questions:
How gold is formed?
Where is gold found?
How gold is mined?
How gold is made?
How gold is formed?
When asked about where gold comes from people often talk about mines, panning for gold, or the oceans. Apparently, the story behind gold predates the formation of the earth.
It most likely all began within the concepts of exploding supernovas and neutron star collisions. These phenomenons theoretically generate extreme conditions and considerable energy required for gold formation.
If gold formed in the depths of the cosmos, then how did it end up on Earth?
Apparently, all of the gold found on earth came from the debris of dead stars. Around four billion years ago, asteroids intensely bombarded the Earth. As a consequence, the metals sunk into the deeper layers of the planet or forced some of the gold back into the surface. Earthquakes and volcanic activities also play a part in bringing out the gold into the Earth’s surface.
Is there an alternative way to produce gold? Alchemists unsuccessfully attempted to turn lead (and other elements) into gold. This resulted in the conclusion that chemical reactions can’t create gold. Although a certain type of nuclear reaction might make it happen, it wouldn’t be a practical solution.
Where is gold found?
Gold is a heavy element that often occurs in rocky environments along with ore and other metals. Therefore it also sinks and accumulates in stream beds, alluvial deposits and can be also found in the oceans. The world's seas and oceans contain a total of between 10 and 20 million tons of gold, mostly in small quantities.
The gold is most likely to be embedded in quartz veins and streams of gravel. At the moment, the Witwatersrand basin contains the world’s largest source of gold. It provides a significant gold amount to the world’s reserves. Estimates suggest that there are still around 40% of the gold that remains in this area. There are just three countries that contain the majority of gold: China, Australia, and South Africa.
How gold is mined?
People associate gold mining with workers that dig with a pickaxe in underground tunnels. Apparently, that is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to a complex gold mining complex. Before any gold can be extracted, miners accurately evaluate the dig site. Then the strategy needs to be arranged to extract the ore efficiently, safely, and responsibly. Estimates indicate that it takes roughly 10 to 20 years to set up a functioning gold mine.
In the past miners used hydraulic mining as the most popular method to separate gold from deposits with high-pressure jets. Nowadays miners typically use explosives and other techniques to discover gold ore. In general, the most common ways to mine metals are as follows :
Placer (dredging, panning, sluicing, and cradling);
Hard rock (underground tunnel mining);
Ore processing (chemical processes to use cyanide to crush the rocks).
In the 20th and 21st centuries, larger corporations do most of the mining. However, the value of gold has led to millions of small, artisanal miners in different parts of the global south. Small-scale miners operate independently and sometimes pay the owners to access different sites.
How gold is made?
The complex process of creating gold bars that we like can facilitate your appreciation for your investment. Gold is one of the softest and most malleable of metals. Manufacturers can compress it to extremely thin form and many other different shapes without breaking.
As it was pointed out earlier, there are many different gold mining methods. One of the most common examples of extracting gold ore is with explosives. Miners collect the ore and use the railing system to transport it in the cart to the surface. After that, workers collect it and bring it to the mill for further processing. First of all, the machinery crushers larger chunks into smaller pieces and pulverizes them into the texture of wheat.
Fur further isolation of gold the factory ads a water and cyanide solution. Then another mill continues to grind it into mud-like pulp. It flows into large settling tanks where heavier particles sink to the bottom. Workers transfer wet solids into the agitation tank and blow air. The oxygen sets off a chemical reaction between the cyanide and the ore that traps the gold. It makes the gold dissolve and leech into the surrounding water. Then filters separate the water from the solids next. Then manufacturers add zinc to the water to solidify the dissolved gold.
How gold bars are made for gold retail stores?
Manufacturers add various chemicals to the extracted particles that contain gold. This mixture separates the gold from impurities. Then it enters the smelter with operating temperatures of 1600°C. There the gold separates from impurities after a few hours and then workers cast it into bar-shaped moulds. After the gold bar cools off, manufacturers clean the bar from any residue.
At this point, producers consider gold to be around 80% pure. That is where mints refine these bars into 99,9% pure ingots. For the refining, process mints are most likely to employ two methods to derive pure gold: the Miller process and the Wohlwill process.
Miller process
Mits that utilize the Miller process refines gold into 99,95% purity. This method requires the transmission of chlorine gas through melted gold with impurities. That is where gold turns into solid crumbles and comes up to the surface, where it can easily be collected. At this point it is about 98% pure, so the refining process of electrolytes is required. It removes remaining admixtures such as platinum and palladium.
Wohlwill process
The Wohlwill process increases purity to about 99.99% by electrolysis. During this process, manufacturers lower the gold bar into the mixture of hydrochloric acid and gold chloride. That is where gold migrates to a negatively charged electrode (conductor) and ends up in a highly pure state.
Taking into account gold retail stores
Gold mining operations continue in the present day, let’s keep in mind that there is a finite supply of gold in the world.
US geological survey estimates that there are around still 50000 tones of gold left on our planet. To put it into perspective, evaluations indicate that people mined around 190000 tones so far. So there is only around 25% of the gold left.
Nature restricts us with a limited amount of resources which will most likely invoke desperation. Thus, you have the opportunity to take advantage of current gold prices which will likely skyrocket in the future.
You can start to buy investing in bars of smaller sizes however larger amounts offer better value for quantity. Gold retail stores can offer you some great deals in securing your gold. The top pick between investors ranges from one ounce to 100 g. gold bars.
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