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Industry · 7 August 2026

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 time…

Tomas Herrera · 17 min read

Mining · 5 August 2026

Grade, Cut-off and the Arithmetic of an Open Pit

A gold mine is not a hole with gold in it. It is a spreadsheet with a hole attached — and the single number that decides which rock is ore and which rock is waste moves every time the price does. ·…

Amara Okonjo · 16 min read

Industry · 6 August 2026

The Scrap Trade

…a quarter to a third of annual gold demand, and its volume responds to price faster than mine output can. · Scrap is priced off spot, adjusted for assayed fineness, then discounted for testing, refining, transport and each intermediary's margin. · High-street payouts commonly la…

Ingrid Sørensen · 15 min read

Industry · 28 July 2026

Urban Mining: The Richest Gold Ore on Earth Is in Your Old Phone

…y richer than gold ore? By concentration, frequently yes. Modern underground ore is often mined at grades measured in single-digit grams of gold per tonne, while sorted, high-grade circuit boards can run into the hundreds of grams per tonne. What e-waste lacks is a deposit: the m…

Tomas Herrera · 13 min read

Industry · 2 July 2026

Nine Nines: Inside a Modern Gold Refinery

…bars trade without re-assay in the wholesale market. · Provenance documentation now determines a bar's marketability as much as its fineness. · What is a doré bar? A doré bar is the semi-pure alloy poured at a mine site, typically 70–90 per cent gold with silver and base-metal i…

Tomas Herrera · 12 min read

Mining · 22 May 2026

The Other Supply Chain: Artisanal Mining and the Mercury Problem

…— but each shifts risk rather than eliminating it. · Traceability schemes work only where miners can actually access a legal buyer at a fair price. · What is artisanal and small-scale gold mining? ASGM refers to mining carried out by individuals or small groups using low-mechanis…

Amara Okonjo · 12 min read

Science · 10 August 2026

Where Gold Actually Comes From

…t all of the gold present when Earth formed sank into the core with the iron; the gold we mine arrived later, in a bombardment known as the late veneer. · Ore is not made by geology delivering gold to one place but by hot water dissolving trace gold from enormous volumes of rock…

Tomas Herrera · 18 min read

Craft · 22 July 2026

Hallmarks and Assay: How Anyone Proves Gold Is Gold

…d into the cupel wall, leaving a bead of gold and silver. The bead is treated with nitric acid to dissolve the silver — the step traditionally called parting — and the remaining gold is weighed. Fineness is the ratio of the final weight to the original. · Its authority comes from…

Yusuf Demir · 12 min read

Industry · 4 August 2026

The Gold Inside Your Phone

…ties, yes: a tonne of scrap circuit boards contains far more gold than a tonne of typical mined ore. At household scale it is not economic and the informal chemical methods used to attempt it are genuinely dangerous. · Does a higher gold price reduce electronics demand? Barely, i…

Tomas Herrera · 15 min read

History · 9 August 2026

The Hoard Problem: What Buried Gold Actually Tells Us

…dicators that a hoard was given rather than hidden. · Can you tell where ancient gold was mined? Only approximately. Trace-element profiles and lead isotope ratios can be compared with ore-body signatures, and the technique works best on objects made from a single, freshly refine…

Marguerite Adler · 16 min read

Markets · 2 August 2026

Who Actually Sets the Gold Price

…mous volume of contracts needs a defensible reference number: refinery supply agreements, mine hedges, jewellery wholesale terms, fund valuations. What it is not is the place where the price is discovered. Discovery happens continuously, all day, across the London over-the-counte…

Ingrid Sørensen · 15 min read

Policies · 6 August 2026

Editorial Standards & Corrections

…gifts · Anyone writing for this publication discloses to the editor any holding in a gold miner, royalty company, refiner, exchange-traded product or dealer that could reasonably be affected by their reporting. Where a holding exists and the assignment proceeds, the interest is d…

Industry · 7 August 2026

How Fake Gold Is Detected

…atch a different class of forgery. A bar that reaches the end of the sequence has been examined by methods with independent physical bases, which is the actual source of confidence — not any single instrument. · Visual and provenance check: refiner marks, serial number, casting t…

Tomas Herrera · 15 min read

History · 14 July 2026

The Gold Standard: How a Soft Yellow Metal Became Money

….3 g/cm³ Density — nearly twice that of lead ~212,000 t Estimated above-ground stock ever mined 1971 Suspension of dollar–gold convertibility · Bretton Woods: gold at one remove · The system negotiated at Bretton Woods in July 1944 was a compromise between the discipline of gold…

Marguerite Adler · 14 min read

Craft · 3 August 2026

The Wedding-Season Bid: How Jewellery Demand Sets the Floor

…t; logistics capacity into the subcontinent is booked against it; and a monsoon that determines the rural harvest determines, with a lag of a few months, how much of the wedding-season buying actually materialises in the villages where a large share of it happens. · ~50% Share of…

Yusuf Demir · 16 min read

Markets · 6 August 2026

Why Central Banks Started Buying Gold Again

…are executed in ways designed to be invisible: standing arrangements to acquire domestic mine production at a benchmark price, discreet over-the-counter accumulation through a small number of bullion banks, occasional purchases from other official institutions. Where domestic pr…

Ingrid Sørensen · 17 min read

Craft · 5 June 2026

The Alchemy of Craft: What Goldsmiths Know That Machines Don't

…arked 750. The remaining quarter is alloying metal, usually copper and silver, which determines hardness and colour. · Why is pure gold rarely used in jewellery? At 24k gold is soft enough to be marked by a fingernail's pressure over time and deforms out of shape in daily wear. A…

Yusuf Demir · 11 min read

Science · 9 August 2026

The Metallurgy of Karat

…nly reveals itself halfway through the final polish. · These are the properties that determine whether a design can be executed at all, and they are why workshops develop loyalties to particular alloy suppliers that outsiders find inexplicable. Two 18k yellows with identical assa…

Tomas Herrera · 16 min read

Policies · 6 August 2026

Financial Disclaimer

…ot adopted as our own predictions. · 4. Sources and their incentives · We quote refiners, miners, central bankers, traders, analysts and campaigners. Every one of them has an interest. A producer wants a higher gold price; a bullion bank earns on turnover; an NGO needs its findin…

Policies · 6 August 2026

Privacy Policy

…GoldMagazine is an independent editorial publication reporting on gold — its markets, its mines, its metallurgy and the people who work it. This Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal data collected through this website, including every article page, the archive, and any…

Markets · 20 June 2026

Bring It Home: Central Banks and the Great Gold Repatriation

For half a century it was rational to store your gold in someone else's basement. Then the calculus of counterparty risk changed, and reserve managers started chartering aircraft. · Overseas custody w…

Ingrid Sørensen · 13 min read

Markets · 8 August 2026

Moving Bullion: The Logistics Nobody Prices

Between the vault and the buyer sits an industry of armoured vehicles, sealed cargo, bonded warehouses and insurance clauses. It rarely makes news, and it is the reason a spot price in London can dive…

Ingrid Sørensen · 17 min read

Science · 8 August 2026

The Metal That Went Medical

Divide gold finely enough and it stops being gold-coloured, stops being inert in the way you expect, and starts doing work in places no bullion bar could reach — including the test strip that told you…

Amara Okonjo · 15 min read