The Archive

Every story we have published about the metal.

26 long-form pieces across history, markets, industry, craft, mining and science. Filter by desk, re-sort, or search the full text of every issue.

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Molten gold being poured from a crucible into a mould inside an industrial refinery, glowing orange against dark machinery

Industry

The Refiner's Ledger

Somewhere between a mine's doré bar and a Good Delivery brick sits a chain of chlorination furnaces, electrolytic cells, assay labs and accreditation committees that decides which gold the world's markets will accept without question — and which gold gets quietly refused.

20 August 2026 · 17 min read

Terraced tailings storage embankment beside a still pale pond at dusk, with dark hills behind and a single excavator for scale

Industry

After the Cyanide

Every ounce of mined gold leaves behind roughly a tonne of processed rock and the water that carried it. What happens to that material after the last shift is the part of the industry with the longest timeline and the least coverage.

7 August 2026 · 16 min read

Authentication bench with digital calipers, an ultrasonic probe and a handheld analyser beside gold bars and coins

Industry

How Fake Gold Is Detected

Counterfeiting gold is not about making something that looks right. It is about defeating a specific test, and the industry's defences are an escalating conversation between forgers and instruments.

7 August 2026 · 16 min read

Precision balance holding a tangle of broken gold chains and single earrings in a weighing tray, with a loupe and paper docket on a dark desk

Industry

The Scrap Trade

Roughly a quarter of the world's annual gold supply has been gold before. It arrives as broken chains, single earrings and dental crowns, and it moves through a chain of intermediaries that most sellers never see past the first counter.

6 August 2026 · 16 min read

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