What Is A Gold Rush?

Gold (and the possible chance of striking riches) has fascinated people from all walks of life for hundreds of years. Below you will find a quick study of what makes a gold rush a “gold rush.”

10 THINGS THAT MAKE A GOLD RUSH A GOLD RUSH

1. High Value of Gold. It all begins with the value that humans place on gold; if not for its value, why else would humans across cultures and centuries go crazy mining a metal with shiny, dark-yellow hue? Due to its malleability and splendor, gold became a choice material in creating jewelry and in accessorizing other human implements to increase their aesthetic and material value (example: weapons, shields, armors, goblets, and storages lined with gold). Gold’s rarity added to its value. Then as now, the world’s demand for gold remains high and its value has never diminished.

2. Discovery of Gold. It’s safe to assume that gold rushes began with chance discoveries, mostly of gold fillings mixed with river sediment. Traces of gold are found mixed in sand and gravel on rivers. After the great Gold Rushes of the 19th century, however, spectators started their active search for gold in or around areas where gold is thought or predicted to be found.

3. Virtually Free Source. In the 19th century, human settlements were not as large and there were tracts upon tracts of open land that were virtually free for settlement. Rivers where gold is found are public properties; this gave people free access to explore, exploit, and harvest its gold. There is no qualification that increases people’s chances of finding gold; nor is there any that bar them from mining it. As the Great California Gold Rush shows, this “free for everyone” ethos had people from all walks of life going to California to get their hands on the mania, which leads us to the fourth universal characteristic of gold rushes: migration.

4. Massive Migration. If there’s a high-value metal discovered in an area where anyone with sense can mine it, chances are people would start flocking in. Gold rushes are characterized by migration. Most of the time, the measure of a gold rush’s fame depends not on the amount of gold mined but in the number of people who participated in the gold rush. Hence, we have the Porcupine Gold Rush (1909-11) in Timmins, Ontario, Canada, which is little known but is one of the largest in terms of gold mined: 67 million ounces of gold!

5. Quick Start-up. No other investment can be cheaper than a simple pan. Until the development of rockers or sluice-boxes, miners simply panned gold in rivers’ shallow waters where they can reach into the gold-rich sediment. However, mining technology and capital expenditures usually grew along with mining operations.

6. Simple to Complex Mining Technology. Mining became large-scale and large mining organizations invested in better mining technology in order to reach and harvest gold in surrounding areas of a major find, especially if the free gold supply in stream beds was depleted. This led to the development of advanced techniques like ground sluicing, hydraulic mining, and dredging. Hard rock mining required more machinery and labor. Ground prospecting and exploration made tunnels, ore mills, smelters, etc. necessary.

7. Discovery of Other Metals. Sometimes gold prospects are not as sizable as expected, but this does not immediately mean losses. Other lower unit value minerals like silver and base metals were usually discovered. These are mined, processed, and sold commercially, and were instrumental in the development of metallurgy and metal industries.

8. Wealth for Everyone. Successful placer miners were, of course, instantly wealthy; while the wealth and affluence may not be common to everyone, it was gradually felt and shared by everyone. Settlements necessitated transportation, businesses, and services. Soon, everyone was with some or other form of livelihood that, while not directly related to mining, was fed primarily by the mining industry.

9. Establishment of Communities. Industries build cities, and gold rushes are no different in this respect. Gold rushes are responsible for massive migration, and the influx eventually gave birth to towns, cities, and states. A good example of this is the discovery in Transvaal, South Africa of the largest deposit of gold in the world. Called the Witwatersrand Gold Rush, it caused conflict between the Boers and the British settlers – a trigger to the Second Boer War in the 1890s and the founding of Johannesburg.

10. Worldwide Enticement of Gold. Gold has a universal appeal that led to gold rushes in the US (California Gold Rush, 1848); Australia (Western Australian Gold Rush, 1890s); Canada (Klondike Gold Rush, 1896-99); New Zealand (Kumara Gold Rush, 1876); Brazil (Minas Gerais Gold Rush, 1695), Argentina (Tierra del Fuego Gold Rush, 1890s), etc. And if you think the gold rush fever is a thing of the past, think again. Gold rushes remain prevalent as evidenced by Mongolia’s Great Mongolian Gold Rush in 2001, Brazil’s Apui Gold Rush in 2006, and Peru’s Madre de Dios Peruvian Amazon Gold Rush in 2009.

This story is brought to you by Silver Scott Mines, a publicly traded (OTC: SILS) junior mining company. Silver Scott Mines is a development stage precious metals company that currently operates in Mexico through a wholly owned subsidiary, Minera Mystery S. de R.L. de C.V. The Mexico corporate office is in Hermosillo, Sonora, the state capital and industrial center for northwestern Mexico. Core projects for Silver Scott Mines are Quitovac in Sonora, Venturnia vein zone in Chihuahua, and the Virgin de Carmen vein zone in Sonora. Additional targets are being developed in six other areas.