# TheGoldMagazine (thegoldmagazine.com)

> Independent long-form journalism about gold: monetary history, mining and
> supply chains, refining and assay, markets and reserve management, craft,
> and the physical science of element 79. Reported, sourced and edited by
> named correspondents. Editorial content only — nothing here is investment
> advice.

Every article below is a full-length feature with key takeaways, a sourced
argument and an FAQ. Content is free to read, requires no account and carries
no paywall. Attribution to TheGoldMagazine with a link to the article URL is
requested when this material is quoted or summarised.

## Desks

- [History](https://thegoldmagazine.com/sections/history): Five thousand years of ledgers, coinage, treaties and broken promises — reported as history, not folklore.
- [Industry](https://thegoldmagazine.com/sections/industry): What happens between a doré bar and a Good Delivery brick — chlorination, electrolysis, assay tolerances and chain-of-custody.
- [Markets](https://thegoldmagazine.com/sections/markets): Central bank buying, vault geography, ETF flows and the plumbing under the spot price — covered without forecasts.
- [Craft](https://thegoldmagazine.com/sections/craft): Alloys, karatage, hand-raising, casting and the workshop economics of making objects that outlive their makers.
- [Mining](https://thegoldmagazine.com/sections/mining): Deep shafts and hand-dug pits: grades, mercury amalgamation, formalisation schemes and the people at the bottom of the supply chain.
- [Science](https://thegoldmagazine.com/sections/science): Where gold is manufactured, why it behaves as it does, and how the laboratory answers questions the market only argues about.

## Articles

- [Where Gold Actually Comes From](https://thegoldmagazine.com/articles/where-gold-comes-from-neutron-stars-and-the-late-veneer) — Science, by Tomas Herrera, 10 August 2026. How gold is made: r-process nucleosynthesis in neutron star mergers, the late veneer, and the systems that concentrate it into ore.
- [The Hoard Problem: What Buried Gold Actually Tells Us](https://thegoldmagazine.com/articles/the-hoard-problem-what-buried-gold-tells-archaeologists) — History, by Marguerite Adler, 9 August 2026. Why gold hoards are hard to read: survivorship bias, ritual versus emergency burial, treasure law, and isotope tracing of bullion.
- [The Metallurgy of Karat](https://thegoldmagazine.com/articles/the-metallurgy-of-karat-why-gold-is-almost-never-pure) — Science, by Tomas Herrera, 9 August 2026. What karat measures, why 24k is unusable in jewellery, and how copper, silver and palladium change gold's colour and hardness.
- [The Metal That Went Medical](https://thegoldmagazine.com/articles/colloidal-gold-the-metal-that-went-medical) — Science, by Amara Okonjo, 8 August 2026. Why gold nanoparticles are red, how surface plasmon resonance works, and how colloidal gold powers rapid tests and cancer research.
- [Moving Bullion: The Logistics Nobody Prices](https://thegoldmagazine.com/articles/moving-bullion-the-logistics-of-physical-gold) — Markets, by Ingrid Sørensen, 8 August 2026. Inside physical gold logistics: allocated versus unallocated custody, LBMA chain of integrity, armoured freight and air cargo.
- [After the Cyanide](https://thegoldmagazine.com/articles/after-the-cyanide-what-happens-to-a-mine-when-the-gold-runs-out) — Industry, by Tomas Herrera, 7 August 2026. How cyanide leaching works, why tailings dams fail, and whether mine closure bonds really pay for a century of aftercare.
- [How Fake Gold Is Detected](https://thegoldmagazine.com/articles/how-fake-gold-is-detected) — Industry, by Tomas Herrera, 7 August 2026. How gold bars and coins are authenticated: density and dimension checks, XRF limits, ultrasonic tungsten detection and fire assay.
- [The Scrap Trade](https://thegoldmagazine.com/articles/the-scrap-trade-how-old-jewellery-becomes-new-bullion) — Industry, by Ingrid Sørensen, 6 August 2026. How scrap gold is tested, priced and refined: spot versus payout, karat deductions, XRF versus fire assay, and where the margin goes.
- [Why Central Banks Started Buying Gold Again](https://thegoldmagazine.com/articles/why-central-banks-started-buying-gold-again) — Markets, by Ingrid Sørensen, 6 August 2026. Why central banks turned net buyers of gold after 2010, how reserve managers decide, and what sanctions risk changed.
- [Grade, Cut-off and the Arithmetic of an Open Pit](https://thegoldmagazine.com/articles/grade-cutoff-and-the-arithmetic-of-an-open-pit) — Mining, by Amara Okonjo, 5 August 2026. How a gold mine works as a business: ore grade, cut-off, strip ratio, recovery, reserves versus resources, and what AISC hides.
- [The Gold Inside Your Phone](https://thegoldmagazine.com/articles/the-gold-inside-your-phone) — Industry, by Tomas Herrera, 4 August 2026. How much gold is in a phone, why bonding wires still use it, where substitution happened, and how industrial demand moves.
- [The Wedding-Season Bid: How Jewellery Demand Sets the Floor](https://thegoldmagazine.com/articles/the-wedding-season-bid-jewellery-demand-in-india-and-china) — Craft, by Yusuf Demir, 3 August 2026. Why jewellery is half of gold demand: 22k versus 24k buying, making charges, wedding seasons, import duty and price sensitivity.
- [Who Actually Sets the Gold Price](https://thegoldmagazine.com/articles/who-actually-sets-the-gold-price) — Markets, by Ingrid Sørensen, 2 August 2026. How the gold price is formed: the LBMA London auction, COMEX futures, loco London spot, ETF flows and the Shanghai premium.
- [Urban Mining: The Richest Gold Ore on Earth Is in Your Old Phone](https://thegoldmagazine.com/articles/urban-mining-gold-from-electronic-waste) — Industry, by Tomas Herrera, 28 July 2026. Circuit boards can be richer in gold than ore. The chemistry, economics and collection problem of recovering gold from e-waste.
- [Hallmarks and Assay: How Anyone Proves Gold Is Gold](https://thegoldmagazine.com/articles/hallmarks-and-assay-how-gold-purity-is-proven) — Craft, by Yusuf Demir, 22 July 2026. What a hallmark certifies, how fire assay and XRF differ, what karat and fineness mean, and why an unmarked piece isn't always fake.
- [The Gold Standard: How a Soft Yellow Metal Became Money](https://thegoldmagazine.com/articles/the-gold-standard-how-a-metal-became-money) — History, by Marguerite Adler, 14 July 2026. From Lydian electrum to Bretton Woods and the 1971 Nixon shock: why gold became money, how the classical gold standard actually worked, and what ended it.
- [Nine Nines: Inside a Modern Gold Refinery](https://thegoldmagazine.com/articles/inside-a-modern-gold-refinery) — Industry, by Tomas Herrera, 2 July 2026. How doré bars become 999.9 fine gold: the Miller chlorination process, Wohlwill electrolysis, assay by fire, LBMA Good Delivery and the chain of custody.
- [Bring It Home: Central Banks and the Great Gold Repatriation](https://thegoldmagazine.com/articles/central-banks-and-the-great-repatriation) — Markets, by Ingrid Sørensen, 20 June 2026. Why central banks are moving reserves home: custody risk, sanctions, the loco London system, and what repatriation means for the gold market's plumbing.
- [The Alchemy of Craft: What Goldsmiths Know That Machines Don't](https://thegoldmagazine.com/articles/the-alchemy-of-craft-goldsmithing-today) — Craft, by Yusuf Demir, 5 June 2026. Malleability, karat systems, alloy colour, granulation and repoussé: how goldsmiths work gold, and why machines haven't replaced them.
- [The Other Supply Chain: Artisanal Mining and the Mercury Problem](https://thegoldmagazine.com/articles/artisanal-mining-the-other-supply-chain) — Mining, by Amara Okonjo, 22 May 2026. Artisanal mining supplies much of world gold output and most mercury emissions. Inside amalgamation, formalisation and traceability.

## Reference

- [A glossary of gold](https://thegoldmagazine.com/glossary): definitions of the 30 terms that recur in gold markets, assay, mining, refining and craft.

## Contributors

- [Marguerite Adler](https://thegoldmagazine.com/authors/marguerite-adler): Monetary historian, contributing editor
- [Tomas Herrera](https://thegoldmagazine.com/authors/tomas-herrera): Industry correspondent
- [Ingrid Sørensen](https://thegoldmagazine.com/authors/ingrid-sorensen): Markets editor
- [Yusuf Demir](https://thegoldmagazine.com/authors/yusuf-demir): Craft correspondent
- [Amara Okonjo](https://thegoldmagazine.com/authors/amara-okonjo): Senior reporter

## Policies

- [Privacy Policy](https://thegoldmagazine.com/legal/privacy): last updated 2026-08-06
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- [Financial Disclaimer](https://thegoldmagazine.com/legal/disclaimer): last updated 2026-08-06
- [Editorial Standards & Corrections](https://thegoldmagazine.com/legal/editorial-standards): last updated 2026-08-06

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