There's (Still) Gold in Them Thar Hills

Not in Virginia

Lawmakers agree to gold mining study but strip out temporary ban

Legislation requiring Virginia to study gold mining and its effects on health and the environment is headed to the governor, but without an earlier provision that would have banned any large-scale gold mining of over 10 acres in the state until July 2023.

On Thursday, the House of Delegates agreed to the modified version of the bill that cleared the Senate Tuesday.

The Senate Committee on Rules removed the temporary moratorium on gold mining Feb. 12 with little discussion after Weyerhaeuser, a forest products company that owns land in Buckingham County where Canadian company Aston Bay Holdings is conducting exploratory drilling for gold, and the Virginia Transportation Construction Alliance testified in support of the study but opposed the ban.

 

“Placing a moratorium on permit issuance is simply premature in our opinion while this study is underway,” said Katie Hellebush, a lobbyist for Weyerhaeuser. “Several layers of adequately protective permitting processes exist from local to federal levels and address each concern outlined in this bill.”

The legislation, which was carried by Del. Elizabeth Guzman, D-Prince William, stemmed from concerns about Aston Bay’s drilling in Buckingham and the company’s comparison of the site’s potential in an investor statement to the Haile gold mine in South Carolina. That 5,000-acre mine is the only active operation of its kind east of the Mississippi and has recently been charged with numerous environmental violations by South Carolina regulators.

Gold has not been mined in Virginia on a large scale for decades. The only company currently mining gold in the commonwealth is Big Dawg Resources in Goochland, which targets small, previously mined sites under 10 acres in size while also cleaning up mercury pollution.

The mercury being the result of old mining, where extraction of gold by forming an amalgam with mercury was common. It's still a serious problem in parts of California, Alaska and Canada.

It's not widely known, but there is a band of gold bearing geology that runs along the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, the Piedmont, running from Georgia to Maine. It's not as rich as the "Mother Lode" country of California, or the Yukon on Alaska or the Klondike in Canada, but in it's day, it supported quite a few mines, at a time when the value of gold was far lower than it is today (but to be fair, prices were also much lower). Most of the mines have been abandoned, but if you know where to go you can still occasionally find color in a pan.

You only have to watch Gold Rush on TV for a few episodes before you realize that industrial scale gold mining can be terribly disruptive to the environment. Large areas are stripped of soil, and the subsoil washed to extract the gold. They do landscape restoration afterward (and yes, it's in the budget), but it must take years to look good again.

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Cathryn Li awaiting your digital pleasure. 

There's (Still) Gold in Them Thar Hills

A mini gold rush has descended on Northern California

Northern California was pelted with record rainfall this winter, and miners predicted that once all the water washed away, gold would be left in its wake. It appears that their predictions are panning out.

“Folks are finding more gold — ‘flood gold’ — than usual this year,” said Diana Clayton, president of the Shasta Miners & Prospectors Association, which owns seven claims throughout Northern California and boasts about 350 members.

“Many of our members have been mining for decades,” Clayton said. “They really know the area. And they know there’s been changes.”

Bryant Shock, co-owner of Gold Prospecting Adventures in Jamestown, Calif., estimates that there’s been a quarter increase in professional miners heading up north – a sure sign of a legitimate gold rush, he says.

So too, Shock has seen bigger chunks of the mineral unearthed this season than in recent years, and not just near streams and rivers. Heavy rainfall triggers slides, he explained, which create cutouts in the hills and deposit small bits of gold in gulches and ravines.

“I’ve heard of people walking along, kicking the dirt and finding a piece of gold,” Clayton added. She said a Shasta Miner recently uncovered a nugget half the size of her pinkie finger – that’s a biggie.

Those mountains (the Sierras) are pretty big, and I doubt that miners found all the veins of gold in them, so, yeah, it seems likely that heavy rains, floods and rockslides could turn up some new shiney stuff.

I guess I should have tried panning some gold while I was hanging around Murphys a few weeks ago. There's a pretty decent video of drone footage from the Oroville Dam spillway at the link that's definitely worth watching.

As Good As Gold?

Canada gives up gold for the US dollar - Canada Has Just 77 Ounces of Gold—or Less as Canadian government sells off reserves

The US holds about 8,133 metric tons of gold. That's 8,133 more than Canada, according to newly released data. The Canadian government sold off 21,851 ounces of gold in February, leaving it with just 77 ounces at most, reports Bloomberg. Those 77 ounces are worth about $100,000, but the official value of Canada's gold reserves is $0 because asset valuations are rounded to the nearest $1 million. That goose egg is actually a good thing in the government's perspective. Canada hoarded some 1,000 metric tons of gold in the 1960s but has been slowly selling it and stashing other countries' currencies instead. Canada holds $48.6 billion in US dollars and $22.5 billion in other currencies, reports the Globe and Mail.

I'm going to guess that 77 ounces is rounding error, or has been stolen, and can't really be accounted for.

"The government has a long-standing policy of diversifying its portfolio by selling physical commodities (such as gold) and instead investing in financial assets that are easily tradable and that have deep markets of buyers and sellers," a Finance Department rep tells the CBC. A former finance official adds that holding onto gold isn't economical because it hasn't had a good rate of return over the years and is costly to store. Clearly not everyone agrees: Russia, India, and China, are shoring up their reserves. Still, one professor suggests the only reason the US Federal Reserve isn't selling its gold is because "it knows it would get attacked in Congress." Indeed, Ted Cruz is a big fan and has suggested the US return to the gold standard, notes the Globe and Mail. (There's $10 million in gold and silver hidden in Utah.)

Gold is a funny thing; aside from jewelry, and a few industrial uses, for which a small amount usually suffices, it has no intrinsic value. And yet countries and wealthy people hoard it far in excess of the amounts needed for those functions, because to people it has become the symbol of wealth. When the money goes to pot (and it usually does after a long period, because politicians are fickle about paying their bills), gold still retains its value. And that is the reason to hoard gold.

In the short run, Canada has probably made a reasonable choice. If worst comes to worst, and it usually does in the long run, they may regret it.

It's a little ironic that Canada has given up owning gold, but is willing to sell gold coins.

Silver Spoon Leaves a Bad Taste in the Mouth

How your posh silverware makes food taste bad

Determined to make the "best spoon in the world," Dr Zoe Laughlin, director of the Institute of Making, led a study to reveal which material made the best spoon for dining.

Speaking to The Guardian, Laughlin said: "We realised there hasn’t been much research into the taste of different metals, but it really affects how food tastes. If a metal makes something taste sweeter, or richer, then there’s potential to reduce the sugar content in the food itself.”

Coating seven spoons in different metals - copper, chrome, zinc, tin, stainless steel, gold, and silver - volunteers were asked to suck each spoon and give their verdict on the taste. Repeating the test, sweet, salty, and acidic foods were added onto the spoons to test if the material would affect the flavour.

The results revealed gold spoons produced the tastiest results, with or without food. During a BBC Breakfast interview, Laughlin attributed gold's success to its lack of metallic taste: "This is eating as it should be - you just taste the flavour of the food and nothing else. You haven't lived till you've eaten with gold."

Stainless steel produced the second best results whilst silver ranked lowest due to its strong metallic flavour. Laughlin described silver as not being at all pleasant for eating as it reacts badly to acids in fruits and sulphur in eggs.

For sweet foods, copper and zinc coated spoons are the best to use, though avoid cod with zinc spoons as Laughlin's previous study revealed it to be a highly unpleasant mix.

Most metals, even stainless steel, dissolve slightly, especially in acidic solutions; hence the metallic taste. Gold, platinum, and palladium however, are essentially inert to all but the mixture of strong hydrochloric and nitric acids that make up aqua regia.  So if you want a silvery looking spoon that doesn't add that metallic taste, get your silverware made from platinum or palladium. On the bright side, they are both currently cheaper than gold, platinum selling for $1205/oz and palladium for $790 compared to $1228 for gold.

When Georgia and I got married back in 1973, we rejected the idea of the traditional set of silver as a requested wedding gift, and went with a more contemporary set of fancy stainless steel.  Having worn out our original set of utensils (although a few sad specimens remain), we have set the stainless into use as our day to day set. Having silver would have been cool, however, as the price of silver has skyrocketed since 1973, when it was approximately $2/oz, and silver coins were still in common circulation. It is currently at $17/oz, down from a high of $48 in 2011.

However, since platinum and palladium spoons are not commonly made, except as labware for it's exceptional inertness, if you really must have the flavorless spoon, you can find gold-plated spoons here for less than a full arm and a leg.

There's (Still) Gold in Them Thar Hills

Drought Has Created California’s 2nd Gold Rush

Prospectors in Southern California are heading to the hills, saying the severe drought has exposed gold that has never been touched by human hands. As water levels continue to drop more nooks and crannies are easier for these gold hunters to access.

“A lot of time you would just see a husband. Now you’re seeing the whole family out,” said Kevin Hoagland, of the Gold Prospectors Association of America.

Prospectors at Lytle Creek, 60 miles from Los Angeles in San Bernardino County, pan for gold, using metal detectors and sluice boxes. CBS2/KCAL9 reporter Art Barron witnessed veteran prospector Jack Barber pull up large pieces of the precious metal.

Armed with simple equipment, anyone can look for gold as long as it’s not on someone’s property or violates an existing gold claim. Many amateur prospectors are joining in the search.

When I was a little kid, and my parents had a vacation cabin near Lake Arrowhead, Calif. (in San Bernardino County, he took me on a few day trips to a place reputed to have had a minor "gold rush" in the good old days, Holcomb Valley.  Equipped with pans and a home made "rocker" sluice box, we (I should really say he, because I'm sure all I did was run around chasing frogs and lizards) tried our hands at gold prospecting.  I even recall a few flakes of something that might have been gold and not fools gold.

Thanks, Dad!

I Guess You Really Can't Take it With You...

... or this guy would have.

$7 Million In Gold Bars Found In Reclusive Man’s Home Month After He Died

A Carson City recluse whose body was found in his home at least a month after he died left only $200 in his bank account.

But as Walter Samaszko Jr.’s house was being cleared for sale, officials made a surprise discovery: gold bars and coins valued at $7 million.

“Nobody had any clue he was hoarding the gold,” Carson City Clerk-Recorder Alan Glover told the Las Vegas Sun, adding it was found stored in boxes in the house and garage.

Gold in Carson City?  I would have thought that silver would be more appropriate.Incidentally, that's almost 250 lbs of gold at today's prices ($1770 per ounce).

Neighbors told authorities they knew little about Samaszko other than he was quiet and not a problem.

Samaszko was “anti-government,” Carson City’s Nevada Appeal reported, and a few conspiracy theory books were found in the home along with several guns. “He never went to a doctor,” Glover told the newspaper. “He was obsessed with getting diseases from shots.”

Samaszko also had stock accounts of more than $165,000 and another $12,000 in cash at the house.

Glover said he wants to start selling off the gold as soon as possible. The IRS wants a share of the total, he said, and the case is relatively simple other than the agency’s involvement.

I am agnostic when it comes to gold as a standard reservoir of value.  It's rare, relatively indestructible, pretty and makes good jewelry, but the same can be said of any number of other elements, only some of which are held in similar esteem (platinum and silver for example).  On the other hand, I'm becoming more convinced that the US government will be forced to inflate it debt away eventually, and if it's possible, and legal, holding gold is some protection from that.  While I may not regard gold as the ultimate standard for value, others do, and that's probably sufficient.