Editing Gold (section)

=== Mining and prospecting ===
{{Main|Gold mining|Gold prospecting}}
[[File:Miner underground at Pumsaint gold mine (1294028).jpg|thumb|left|A miner underground at [[Pumsaint]] gold mine, [[Wales]]; {{Circa|1938}}.]]
[[File:Grasberg mine.jpg|upright=1|thumb|[[Grasberg mine]], Indonesia is the world's largest gold mine.]]
Since the 1880s, South Africa has been the source of a large proportion of the world's gold supply, and about 22% of the gold presently accounted is from [[South Africa]]. Production in 1970 accounted for 79% of the world supply, about 1,480 tonnes. In 2007 [[China]] (with 276 tonnes) overtook South Africa as the world's largest gold producer, the first time since 1905 that South Africa had not been the largest.<ref>{{cite web |last=Mandaro |first=Laura |url=http://www.marketwatch.com/story/china-now-worlds-largest-gold-producer-foreign-miners-at-door |title=China now world's largest gold producer; foreign miners at door |website=[[MarketWatch]] |date=17 January 2008 |access-date=5 April 2009}}</ref>

In 2023, [[Gold mining in China|China]] was the world's leading gold-mining country, followed in order by Russia, Australia, Canada, the United States and Ghana.<ref name="Gold Production-2023" />
[[File:Gold 30g for a 860kg rock.jpg|thumb|left|Relative sizes of an {{cvt|860|kg|adj=on}} block of gold ore and the {{cvt|30|g|ozt}} of gold that can be extracted from it, [[Toi gold mine]], [[Japan]].]]

In South America, the controversial project [[Pascua Lama]] aims at exploitation of rich fields in the high mountains of [[Atacama Desert]], at the border between [[Chile]] and [[Argentina]].

It has been estimated that up to one-quarter of the yearly global gold production originates from artisanal or small scale mining.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.iisd.org/publications/global-trends-artisanal-and-small-scale-mining-asm-review-key-numbers-and-issues |last1=Fritz |first1=Morgane |last2=McQuilken |first2=James |last3=Collins |first3=Nina |last4=Weldegiorgis |first4=Fitsum |title=Global Trends in Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM): A review of key numbers and issues |via=Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development |format=PDF |type=Report |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |location=Winnipeg Canada |date=January 2018 |access-date=24 February 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |website=reuters.com |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-gold-mining-artisanal-explainer/what-is-artisanal-gold-and-why-is-it-booming-idUSKBN1ZE0YU |title=What is artisanal gold and why is it booming? |publisher=[[Reuters]] |date=15 January 2020 |access-date=24 February 2021 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Removal of Barriers to the Abatement of Global Mercury Pollution from Artisanal Gold Mining |url=http://www.unido.org/fileadmin/import/10644_CHRISTIANtext.3.pdf |last=Beinhoff |first=Christian |access-date=29 December 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160126032505/http://www.unido.org/fileadmin/import/10644_CHRISTIANtext.3.pdf |type=Report |archive-date=26 January 2016}}</ref>

The city of [[Johannesburg]] located in South Africa was founded as a result of the [[Witwatersrand Gold Rush]] which resulted in the discovery of some of the largest natural gold deposits in recorded history. The gold fields are confined to the northern and north-western edges of the [[Witwatersrand basin]], which is a {{cvt|5|-|7|km|adj=on}} thick layer of [[archean]] rocks located, in most places, deep under the [[Free State (South African province)|Free State]], [[Gauteng]] and surrounding provinces.<ref name="Truswell-1977">Truswell, J.F. (1977). ''The Geological Evolution of South Africa''. pp. 21–28. Purnell, Cape Town. {{ISBN|9780360002906}}</ref> These Witwatersrand rocks are exposed at the surface on the [[Witwatersrand]], in and around Johannesburg, but also in isolated patches to the south-east and south-west of Johannesburg, as well as in an arc around the [[Vredefort Dome]] which lies close to the center of the Witwatersrand basin.<ref name="McCarthy-2005" /><ref name="Truswell-1977" /> From these surface exposures the basin [[strike and dip|dips]] extensively, requiring some of the mining to occur at depths of nearly {{cvt|4000|m}}, making them, especially the [[Savuka Mine|Savuka]] and [[TauTona]] mines to the south-west of Johannesburg, the deepest mines on Earth. The gold is found only in six areas where [[archean]] rivers from the north and north-west formed extensive pebbly [[Braided river]] deltas before draining into the "Witwatersrand sea" where the rest of the Witwatersrand sediments were deposited.<ref name="Truswell-1977" />

The [[Second Boer War]] of 1899–1901 between the [[British Empire]] and the [[Afrikaner]] [[Boer]]s was at least partly over the rights of miners and possession of the gold wealth in South Africa.

[[File:Kullanhuuhdontaa Ivalossa.jpg|thumb|Gold prospecting at the [[Ivalo River]] in the [[Lapland (Finland)|Finnish Lapland]] in 1898]]
During the 19th century, [[gold rush]]es occurred whenever large gold deposits were discovered. The first documented discovery of gold in the United States was at the [[Reed Gold Mine]] near Georgeville, North Carolina in 1803.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nchistoricsites.org/Reed/reed.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120115012324/http://www.nchistoricsites.org/Reed/reed.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=15 January 2012 |title=Reed Gold Mine State Historic Site |last=Moore |first=Mark A. |date=2006 |publisher=North Carolina Office of Archives and History |access-date=13 December 2008}}</ref> The first major gold strike in the United States occurred in a small north Georgia town called [[Dahlonega, Georgia|Dahlonega]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Road to adventure |publisher=Georgia Magazine |last=Garvey |first=Jane A. |url=http://www.georgiamagazine.org/archives_view.asp?mon=7&yr=2006&ID=1344 |date=2006 |access-date=23 January 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070302212304/http://www.georgiamagazine.org/archives_view.asp?mon=7&yr=2006&ID=1344 |archive-date=2 March 2007 }}</ref> Further gold rushes occurred in [[California Gold Rush|California]], [[Pike's Peak Gold Rush|Colorado]], the [[Black Hills Gold Rush|Black Hills]], [[Otago gold rush|Otago]] in New Zealand, a number of locations across [[Australian gold rushes|Australia]], [[Witwatersrand Gold Rush|Witwatersrand]] in South Africa, and the [[Klondike Gold Rush|Klondike]] in Canada.

[[Grasberg mine]] located in [[Papua (province)|Papua]], [[Indonesia]] is the largest [[gold mining|gold mine]] in the world.<ref>{{cite web|title=Grasberg Open Pit, Indonesia|url=http://www.mining-technology.com/projects/grasbergopenpit|website=Mining Technology|access-date=16 October 2017}}</ref>