Introduction to Gold
The first Australian gold rush officially started in 1851 when Edward Hargraves made a discovery in Bathurst. Other discoveries had been made before, but the governor of NSW did not approve them as he didn't want lot's more migrants migrating to Australia, to steal all our gold and raise their family there. But eventually the whole world found out and all came rushing in to Australia to find gold.
Gold is a soft, glittery yellow metal that is found on the edges of river banks. It's a chemical element and has the atomic number 79. Gold is the only metal that does not rust when it has been in water, as the gold is actually found in water.
Many people say that the gold rush ended because they was no more gold. But in fact there is still gold in rivers just not as much as there used to be. The Australian gold rush ended because the alluvial gold, that is, the gold which was able to be reached easily, was mined out. Alluvial gold sat on the surface and was easy for prospectors to find. Once the "easy pickings" ran out, only large companies had the equipment to dig down deep to where the reef gold was. There is still much more gold in Australia, but by early in the twentieth century, most of it could only be reached by heavy industrial mining equipment. This is the primary method of gold extraction in Australia today.
Gold is a soft, glittery yellow metal that is found on the edges of river banks. It's a chemical element and has the atomic number 79. Gold is the only metal that does not rust when it has been in water, as the gold is actually found in water.
Many people say that the gold rush ended because they was no more gold. But in fact there is still gold in rivers just not as much as there used to be. The Australian gold rush ended because the alluvial gold, that is, the gold which was able to be reached easily, was mined out. Alluvial gold sat on the surface and was easy for prospectors to find. Once the "easy pickings" ran out, only large companies had the equipment to dig down deep to where the reef gold was. There is still much more gold in Australia, but by early in the twentieth century, most of it could only be reached by heavy industrial mining equipment. This is the primary method of gold extraction in Australia today.
Many people thought that you would find a big gold nugget every time you dug for gold. But the truth is that you would find small pieces of gold about the size of one quarter of your pinkie fingernail. But if you were lucky you would score yourself a big bit of gold about the size of your fingernail.
To learn more about gold nuggets visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_nugget |