Why mine gold?

Why mine gold?
A Long time ago men had discovered a very glittering precious metal known to be the most appealing metal for jewelry. It is very important to industry and the arts and retains a unique status among all commodities as a long-term store of value. For so long it was considered essentially as a monetary metal. It is used as a deposit for value of money to be printed out by any country to be put into circulation. Gold bullions, or known as bars of gold determines the monetary value of a certain country depending on their gold deposit at the international depository bank. Without a gold reserve any money printed out by a country becomes a fiat money. An example of this is the Japanese money circulated in the Philippines during the World War II.It was on the 20th century when gold had emerged as an industrial metal. The oldest uses of gold is in jewelries however, industrialist had discovered that gold can be used in electronic device like the printed circuit boards, connectors, keyboard contractors, and miniaturized circuitry. It is also used as a reflector of infrared radiation in radiant heating and drying devices and heat-insulating windows for large buildings. Gold applied as organometallic liquids is used for decoration.Gold has an atomic number of 79 and atomic weight of 197 occurring naturally as a single stable isotope. Its melting point is 1,063 degrees centigrade and its specific gravity is 19.3. The "troy system" is used to determine the weight of gold and other precious metals and is based on troy ounce of 480 grains or 20 pennyweight. One troy ounce is equivalent to 1.097 ounces. One cubic inch of pure gold weighs about 10 troy ounces. Fineness of gold refers to the weight proportion of pure gold in an alloy, expressed in parts per thousand. One thousand (1,000) fine gold is 100% pure gold. Commercially traded gold bullion is usually 995 fine or higher.The term "karat" refers to purity of the gold but is expressed on the 24ths. Thus 24 karat (24K) gold is 1,000 fine or pure gold and 10k gold is 10/24 or 41.7 percent gold. If you happen to have a jewelry made of 10K you will know that it contains only 41.7 percent gold and the rest are other metals mixed with the gold. These are called gold alloys. Gold alloys used in jewelry and certain other end uses referred to as karat gold while alloys used in dentistry and electrical devices are designated more precisely. White karat gold is usually composed of gold, copper, nickel, and zinc but there are some instances where platinum and palladium have been used as components of white gold. You will notice that most diamond jewelries are mounted on gold alloys and not pure gold because pure gold is softer. If the casing of a hard stone like diamond is pure gold, there is a tendency that the diamond will be lost if scratched.During ancient times, when pure gold is used by the Chinese "Tael" as their currency, the only way to test whether it is pure gold is to bite it with the teeth and if it was marked with the bite then you can be assured it is pure gold.Gold could not be found just on the surface of the earth but must require mining operation to extract it from the core of the earth. But there are some gold grains that usually appear in black sand along the river and could be extracted by using simple hand tools and implements. But these are just a superficial volume and needs simple operation called "gold panning". In Western Visayas, we had a small-scale gold extraction in Hinoba-an River, Negros Occidental. Way back in the l980's it was dubbed as the gold rush. It was said that gold in Hinoba-an was discovered when an old man from Cebu had seen a "golden cow" right at the sight of the "gold rush" and soon he secretly panned the black sand and found gold grains with a 24 karat fineness. This phenomenon was passed through a word of mouth and spread like wildfire in the town of Hinoba-an resulting to a gold rush.Gold is mined under the ground and is usually recovered from gold ores or as a by-product in the process of refining other metals particularly copper. Gold mines usually produce a by-product like silver and a co-product like uranium. When we talked of by-product, it means that the main volume of mining reserves is gold but in the process produced silver in a smaller volume. When we talked of co-product, it and is mined simultaneously and separated through the process.Gold is used extensively for jewelry because its physicochemical properties are essential to its function in jewelries and other end users. Gold does not tarnish or corrode in use. It is the most malleable of metals; very ductile, has a bright pleasing color; is highly reflective to infrared radiation; and to most visible spectrum alloys readily with other common metals. It has also high electrical thermal conductivity. It is also non-allergenic, remains tarnish-free indefinitely and easy to fashion because of its softness. This is also the reason why it was used in dentistry as inlays, crowns, bridges, and othodontic appliances.Most of the mining method used for gold mining operation is the open pit method or the underground method or a combination of both. In underground mining, the specific technologies is basically cut-and-fill stoping due to the peculiar vein-type of ore deposit. The production operations include rock breaking, loading and hauling. The placer and pocket mining methods use simple hand tools and implements and are commonly employed in the small-scale gold operations reportedly at Benguet, Camarines Norte and Davao del Norte.Mining is being feared of by many environmentalists because of its environmental hazards as experienced in the past. But the good news is, mining has its own way of developing technologies that are environment friendly through the New Mining act of l995. The new law was meant to erase the fears of mining destruction but gives assurance to people that mining operation is no longer the ghost that will haunt our future but a partner that will boost not only the economy as a whole but will redeem people of the Philippines from the quagmire of poverty.The lawmakers who crafted the New Mining Act had given careful considerations to the welfare of the mineral-host community and proved that the environment has a regenerative capacity to regain its natural state through proper rehabilitation. The gold mining industry is one among those that had proven the sincerity of the mining business to extract gold and yet able to regenerate the area. One of the shining example of the gold mine is the Philex Gold at Sipalay-Hinobaan wherein clearings of trees that had been made when its operation is in full blast is now a beautiful man-made forest and the open pit became a fishpond teeming with fresh water fish. Water quality is at its best.Who would live without gold? The Filipinos could not live without it. Gold jewelries are synonymous to a status symbol for the Filipinos. The Philippines need more gold bullion reserves to make the peso worthy of money exchange in the world market. But if we stop mining gold here in the Philippines, and depend our gold needs from other countries, what will happen to us? Prices here will become higher, our peso reserves will deteriorate and someday we will wake up that our peso value will no longer compete in the world market. Other industries that depend on gold alloy will have prices for their products dictated by the prices of gold in the world market.While food is a necessity in this generation, gold is another necessity that we should not forget because it makes our money worth its price. We cannot use our money to buy food and pay for our education if there are no gold reserves at the international bank. One of the reasons why value of the Peso is devaluated is when we produce more bills and coins without the necessary reserves required by the World Bank. The reserves that are deposited there are stretch to accommodate the new bills and coins that we had produced. Correct me if I am wrong. A good economist knows this.Western Visayas is composed of islands sitting on a mountain of gold. Gold reserves is there waiting for us to tapped it. For as long as we refuse to accept that the development of a country needs the mining industry and we do not want mining here in Western Visayas, the Filipinos will remain to be the slaves of other countries as caregivers, domestic helpers, entertainers, comfort women, factory laborers, ship cleaners because we failed to take the opportunity of maximizing the wealth of our nation and waiting for foreigners to take over our bountiful land for their own comfort.Canada and Australia are both mining capital of the world. But Filipinos wanted to be immigrants to these countries spending thousands of pesos just to get an immigration document and live there. Are they not afraid of the mining activities there? Why are Canada and Australia so attractive? Is it because poverty is not an issue there? Mining makes Canada and Australia rich countries and it is nice to live in a rich country. So here we are Filipinos wanting to migrate to Canada and Australia and leave the Philippines sitting on its mountain of wealth. Someday, all these able bodied Filipinos will live in other rich countries and many investors coming from other countries will take over our wealth, take them away from us and make their countries more rich leaving us poorer.Looking for gold? It is just beneath your feet. It is not at the end of the rainbow.