History of science
How often do new discoveries of gold occur? Vanessa
New discoveries of gold occur all the time, but maybe not the way you think! We don't often discover big deposits of gold nuggets laying around in rivers anymore (like during the gold rushes). This is because most of the rivers have been checked for gold already (people seem to like to look for gold). Nowadays when new gold sources are discovered it is usually by mining exploration companies, rather than grizzled old prospectors. To explore for gold, companies will look for areas where: 1. Not many people have looked before. Lots of work goes on in the more remote parts of South America. 2. They think gold might occur. Sometimes gold occurs in certain types of underwater volcanic rocks, that is a good clue, but gold occurs in many types of rocks so it helps to know a lot about geology. 3. Where the gold might not be possible to see with the naked eye. Many gold mines have lots of gold which you can find by chemical testing! (I have a rock where the gold is measured in only a few parts per million and is from an economic gold mine!) 4. Sometimes mining companies will go back to where gold was discovered, but was too expensive to recover. When they do this they hope new techniques will allow them to make money recovering the gold. Just because gold is there doesn't mean a mine will make money. All of this does not mean you won't find gold in your own town, but it is not very likely. Good luck looking though!