The important companies are looking to find areas with big concentrations of gold and are not interested in the stream bed behind your house. Gold can be found near the surface of the Earth or in its depth. The gold found in both situations is mixed with other metals such as cooper, silver or lead.
The place where the gold is found dictates the mining process that will be used to extract it. Geologists usually study the rocks in the region, take samples from the ground and inform the companies what needs to be done next.
An extraction site can be underground or it can be an open-pit. An open-pit is used when the gold is located near the surface of the Earth. Basically it is a huge hole in the ground that has circular roads on the sides. These roads are used for transporting equipment in and out of the open-pit. The actual excavation is done with explosives and heavy machines.
Where there is an underground pit means that the gold is found much deeper into the ground. Shafts with tunnels are dug and all roads lead to the load deposit. There is a great deal of financial investment in both types of mining. The cost of the material used (explosives, machines, electric energy for pumping air in the mines etc) can add up to a large amount of money.
When the gold has been extracted from the ground the big pieces of gold are made smaller until they reach the consistency of a grain of sand. After this process is over, a cyanide solution is poured over the grained gold until it becomes a homogeneous mix. The cyanide solution frees the gold from other metal in it and dissolves it
Learn how to buy gold in times of recession by professionals.
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