It is a very long list - to the point that we're still working on it!
Gold and gold miners are now at the forefront of global investor interest - including the recent back-flip of long-time gold-sceptic Warren Buffett.
Here's the first-half of the Strictly Boardroom A-Z of Gold-list - that stretches well beyond just 26 different types of gold. The Gold.I.AM list covers the A-M denominations of the alphabet.
So, do you know them all? Here goes:
A is for Aurum (Au), being gold itself of course, meaning something like ‘shining dawn' in its pre-Latin roots, and also for Alluvial Gold… for Artisanal Gold, for the A$ Gold price, All-in-Sustaining Costs (AISC)… and Amethyst Gold (see Purple Gold)… A is also for Asteroid Gold, such as the Eros asteroid is estimated to contain four billion oz (124,000 tonnes) of gold… and A is also for Archaean Gold, the largest contributor to Australia's gold production… and as Abitibi Gold, important in Canada too… Aztec Gold… Ashanti Gold… and for Gold Assays… Alchemy, the process of turning base metals, usually lead into gold… Amalgam, gold dissolved in mercury… and the ‘Acid Test', derived from the fact that silver and base metals dissolve in nitric acid, but gold does not… and Golden Ages… and obviously Australian Gold, the world's second largest gold miner, and host to the world's largest known resources… A is also for all those gold explorers that start their name with an ‘A" to be at the forefront of the ASX company listings: Unfortunately, there are far too many of them to list them all here!
B is for Bonanza Gold… Bendigo & Ballarat Gold… Blue Mountain Gold, Australia's first ‘gold find'… Bathurst Gold, cause of Australia's first gold rush in 1851 (also see Orange & Ophir Gold)… Black Gold (variously black pepper, coal, and oil metaphorically, or literally gold with a black oxidised layer, usually utilising cobalt, as well as a variety of media productions and other miscellany)… ‘Black Smoker' Gold (see Seabed Gold Mining)… Blue Gold (alloyed with gallium or indium)… and for ‘Bit Gold' "…one of the earliest attempts at creating a decentralized digital currency, proposed by blockchain pioneer Nick Szabo in 1998. Although the Bit Gold project was never implemented, it's often regarded as being the direct precursor to Satoshi Nakamoto's Bitcoin Protocol")… for the Busang Gold Deposit (or lack thereof)… B is also for Gold Bullion… and Gold Bars, ideally weighing 400oz to be a ‘London Good Delivery Bar', the standard unit of the gold trade… As of last week, B is now also for Buffett - and for Barrick.
C is for 24 Carat Gold… this year's COVID-19 Gold Price Spike… Coloured Gold (where everything from black, blue, grey, green, pink, purple, rose, red and white varieties of gold exist, typically alloys with colour-giving metals such as copper, cadmium, palladium, silver and so forth - even gallium or indium)… the Californian Gold Rush (1848-55)… the Cripple Creek Gold Rush (Colorado, 1891)… Charters Towers Gold (see Queensland Gold Rush)… the Gold Coast… Coolgardie Gold (see Western Australia Gold Rush)… Chinese Gold, currently the world's largest producer, and buyer, and a key influence of the macroeconomics of gold prices… Carlin-type Gold… Gold Coins, including the world's largest at the Perth Mint weighing one tonne… Gold Credit Cards… not worshipping the Golden Calf… Gold Crystals… Cubic Gold… Calaverite (AuTe2 - one of the few natural ores of gold)… a 1065 Celsius, melting point… Carpet Gold, a modern version of ‘Sheepskin Gold' (see later entry) which your scribe has seen employed in Indonesia… Clean Gold, gold mined from those operations that have an emissions intensity within the lowest quartile of global production)… and even Conflict Gold… and inevitably Conflict-Free Gold…
D is for Dore Gold… Gold Dust (also an American wrestler)… Gold Doubloons (see Spanish Gold) … Gold Diggers, either miners, or ‘prospective' partners… Decorative Gold… Ductile Gold… Durable Gold… Dodecahedral Gold… Dendritic Gold… and Digital Gold… and perhaps to state the obvious, at least from a Western Australian perspective - for the annual Diggers and Dealers Forum in Kalgoorlie too…
E is for E-Gold, a failed digital gold currency... Gold ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds)… Ethical Gold… Gold in Electricals and Electronics… and for Electrum… the naturally occurring gold-silver alloy… Goldeneye, the Bond film… Eluvial Gold… Epithermal Gold… Earthquake Gold… Eldorado, the lost city of gold… and also for Element 79… and the 79 Electrons… and E175, the ‘e-number' of gold as a food additive in Europe… and finally, Eucalyptus Gold, the trees' leaves are rich in gold due to their deep roots, whilst the toxicity of gold means that it is pushed out to the leaves… potentially useful for Gold Exploration, amongst more established methods…
F is for Free Gold… Fine Gold… Gold Flakes… the Gold Fix… Gold Futures… Fort Knox, which currently holds 4,600 tonnes of gold… Gold FM, any number of radio stations, generally playing ‘older music', such as that from the 1980s and 1990s, for example, 104.3 in Melbourne… Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh… Goldfinger, another Bond film… the Golden Fleece of Argonauts' fame… a 5137 Fahrenheit boiling point… the Fifth Element (but not the Bruce Willis movie, instead see Quintessential Gold)… and no gold A to Z would be complete without Fool's Gold, iron pyrite, and Fake Gold, often tungsten due to their similarity in density, or Gold Fever for that matter…
G is for Green Gold, either metaphorically as environmentally-friendly gold or literally as electrum which often has a greenish tinge… and Grey Gold (alloyed with palladium)… Goldie, a British drum and bass musician, famous for his gold teeth, and who also starred in the Bond film, The World Is Not Enough… and also for Gravity Gold… Gold Grains… Grams Per Tonne of Gold.. and The Man with the Golden Gun, yet another James Bond film…
H is for High-Grade Gold… High-Cost Gold, sometimes related to the latter, contrary to the common wisdom… Gold Hedging… Central Bank Gold Holdings… Gold Hallmarks… actress Goldie Hawn, Halls Creek Gold, focus of Western Australia's first gold rush in 1885, but not THE gold rush… Hypoallergenic Gold, with dermatitis causing nickel and mercury impurities removed)… and the 0.229g of gold in the human body… the Hemi Gold Deposit by De Grey Mining, winner of the 2020 MNN Explorer of the Year… and for the fact that "There is no honest man — not one — that can resist the attraction of gold!" (Aristophanes, ancient Greek playwright, C.446-386BC)…
I is for I is for Indigenous Gold, produced from mines owned by First Nations peoples… Inti, the Incan God of the Sun, whose tears were made of gold… Investment Gold… Inert Gold… Iron Oxide Copper Gold (IOCG) Deposits, though gold is usually a by-product… Gold Innovation, such as the MacArthur-Forrest cyanidation process, amongst many other innovations… and finally, the letter I is also responsible for ‘Invisible' Gold - of the somewhat prolific Carlin-type variety (see above)...
J is for JORC-Compliant Gold, Gold Jewellery… Green and Gold Jerseys… Gold Joint Ventures… and also for Jay Z Gold (an aftershave marketed by the eponymous rapper)…
K is for King Solomon's Gold… the Klondike Gold Rush (Yukon, 1896-99)… Koala Gold (see Eucalyptus Gold), and for Kalgoorlie, still Australia's gold capital…
L is for Lateritic Gold… Leased Gold, Liquid Gold… Lode Gold… Gold Leaf… Gold Loans… Legal Disputes about Gold, of which there have been many, and which invariably it is the lawyers who are the ‘real' winners… the London Bullion Market Association… Lydian Gold, thought to be the first used for currency, "Lust for Gold, not the fault of the metal" (Agricola, 1556)… and of course Low-Grade Gold (very common)… and Low-Cost Gold (very rare)…
M is for Gold as Money… and the Gold Markets… Mercury-Free Gold… for Mesothermal Gold… Gold Medals… ‘Gold', a decent movie about the Bre-X scandal with an entertaining Matthew McConaughey performance… 2.4 Miles, the depth of the Mponeng Gold Mine in South Africa, the world's deepest mine… the Golden Mile in Kalgoorlie… the lesser known Margaret River Gold Rush… and for the Midas Touch…
That completes Strictly Boardroom's first-half attempt to capture the spectrum of gold's many and varied different guises in alphabetical terms.
Gold has something for everyone. What have we missed?
Good hunting.
John Sykes is undertaking a multidisciplinary doctorate at the Centre for Exploration Targeting, UWA and a sessional lecturer on the MBA programme at UWA Business School. He is also a strategist for MinEx Consulting and a director of Greenfields Research, both consultancies specialising in the analysis of mining and exploration across the base, precious and specialty metals sectors (john.sykes@greenfieldsresearch.com).
Allan Trench is MBA Director and Professor at the UWA Business School, a non-executive director of several ASX-listed minerals companies - and the Perth representative for CRU Consulting, a division of independent metals and mining advisory CRU Group (allan.trench@crugroup.com).
NB: A comprehensive bibliography is available upon request!
STRICTLY BOARDROOM
Gold. I. AM
IN celebration of the US-dollar gold price recently breaching the US$2000/oz mark, <i>Strictly Boardroom</i> has compiled an A-Z list of the different ‘types’ of the golden commodity.
It is a very long list - to the point that we're still working on it!
Gold and gold miners are now at the forefront of global investor interest - including the recent back-flip of long-time gold-sceptic Warren Buffett.
Here's the first-half of the Strictly Boardroom A-Z of Gold-list - that stretches well beyond just 26 different types of gold. The Gold.I.AM list covers the A-M denominations of the alphabet.
So, do you know them all? Here goes:
A is for Aurum (Au), being gold itself of course, meaning something like ‘shining dawn' in its pre-Latin roots, and also for Alluvial Gold… for Artisanal Gold, for the A$ Gold price, All-in-Sustaining Costs (AISC)… and Amethyst Gold (see Purple Gold)… A is also for Asteroid Gold, such as the Eros asteroid is estimated to contain four billion oz (124,000 tonnes) of gold… and A is also for Archaean Gold, the largest contributor to Australia's gold production… and as Abitibi Gold, important in Canada too… Aztec Gold… Ashanti Gold… and for Gold Assays… Alchemy, the process of turning base metals, usually lead into gold… Amalgam, gold dissolved in mercury… and the ‘Acid Test', derived from the fact that silver and base metals dissolve in nitric acid, but gold does not… and Golden Ages… and obviously Australian Gold, the world's second largest gold miner, and host to the world's largest known resources… A is also for all those gold explorers that start their name with an ‘A" to be at the forefront of the ASX company listings: Unfortunately, there are far too many of them to list them all here!
B is for Bonanza Gold… Bendigo & Ballarat Gold… Blue Mountain Gold, Australia's first ‘gold find'… Bathurst Gold, cause of Australia's first gold rush in 1851 (also see Orange & Ophir Gold)… Black Gold (variously black pepper, coal, and oil metaphorically, or literally gold with a black oxidised layer, usually utilising cobalt, as well as a variety of media productions and other miscellany)… ‘Black Smoker' Gold (see Seabed Gold Mining)… Blue Gold (alloyed with gallium or indium)… and for ‘Bit Gold' "…one of the earliest attempts at creating a decentralized digital currency, proposed by blockchain pioneer Nick Szabo in 1998. Although the Bit Gold project was never implemented, it's often regarded as being the direct precursor to Satoshi Nakamoto's Bitcoin Protocol")… for the Busang Gold Deposit (or lack thereof)… B is also for Gold Bullion… and Gold Bars, ideally weighing 400oz to be a ‘London Good Delivery Bar', the standard unit of the gold trade… As of last week, B is now also for Buffett - and for Barrick.
C is for 24 Carat Gold… this year's COVID-19 Gold Price Spike… Coloured Gold (where everything from black, blue, grey, green, pink, purple, rose, red and white varieties of gold exist, typically alloys with colour-giving metals such as copper, cadmium, palladium, silver and so forth - even gallium or indium)… the Californian Gold Rush (1848-55)… the Cripple Creek Gold Rush (Colorado, 1891)… Charters Towers Gold (see Queensland Gold Rush)… the Gold Coast… Coolgardie Gold (see Western Australia Gold Rush)… Chinese Gold, currently the world's largest producer, and buyer, and a key influence of the macroeconomics of gold prices… Carlin-type Gold… Gold Coins, including the world's largest at the Perth Mint weighing one tonne… Gold Credit Cards… not worshipping the Golden Calf… Gold Crystals… Cubic Gold… Calaverite (AuTe2 - one of the few natural ores of gold)… a 1065 Celsius, melting point… Carpet Gold, a modern version of ‘Sheepskin Gold' (see later entry) which your scribe has seen employed in Indonesia… Clean Gold, gold mined from those operations that have an emissions intensity within the lowest quartile of global production)… and even Conflict Gold… and inevitably Conflict-Free Gold…
D is for Dore Gold… Gold Dust (also an American wrestler)… Gold Doubloons (see Spanish Gold) … Gold Diggers, either miners, or ‘prospective' partners… Decorative Gold… Ductile Gold… Durable Gold… Dodecahedral Gold… Dendritic Gold… and Digital Gold… and perhaps to state the obvious, at least from a Western Australian perspective - for the annual Diggers and Dealers Forum in Kalgoorlie too…
E is for E-Gold, a failed digital gold currency... Gold ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds)… Ethical Gold… Gold in Electricals and Electronics… and for Electrum… the naturally occurring gold-silver alloy… Goldeneye, the Bond film… Eluvial Gold… Epithermal Gold… Earthquake Gold… Eldorado, the lost city of gold… and also for Element 79… and the 79 Electrons… and E175, the ‘e-number' of gold as a food additive in Europe… and finally, Eucalyptus Gold, the trees' leaves are rich in gold due to their deep roots, whilst the toxicity of gold means that it is pushed out to the leaves… potentially useful for Gold Exploration, amongst more established methods…
F is for Free Gold… Fine Gold… Gold Flakes… the Gold Fix… Gold Futures… Fort Knox, which currently holds 4,600 tonnes of gold… Gold FM, any number of radio stations, generally playing ‘older music', such as that from the 1980s and 1990s, for example, 104.3 in Melbourne… Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh… Goldfinger, another Bond film… the Golden Fleece of Argonauts' fame… a 5137 Fahrenheit boiling point… the Fifth Element (but not the Bruce Willis movie, instead see Quintessential Gold)… and no gold A to Z would be complete without Fool's Gold, iron pyrite, and Fake Gold, often tungsten due to their similarity in density, or Gold Fever for that matter…
G is for Green Gold, either metaphorically as environmentally-friendly gold or literally as electrum which often has a greenish tinge… and Grey Gold (alloyed with palladium)… Goldie, a British drum and bass musician, famous for his gold teeth, and who also starred in the Bond film, The World Is Not Enough… and also for Gravity Gold… Gold Grains… Grams Per Tonne of Gold.. and The Man with the Golden Gun, yet another James Bond film…
H is for High-Grade Gold… High-Cost Gold, sometimes related to the latter, contrary to the common wisdom… Gold Hedging… Central Bank Gold Holdings… Gold Hallmarks… actress Goldie Hawn, Halls Creek Gold, focus of Western Australia's first gold rush in 1885, but not THE gold rush… Hypoallergenic Gold, with dermatitis causing nickel and mercury impurities removed)… and the 0.229g of gold in the human body… the Hemi Gold Deposit by De Grey Mining, winner of the 2020 MNN Explorer of the Year… and for the fact that "There is no honest man — not one — that can resist the attraction of gold!" (Aristophanes, ancient Greek playwright, C.446-386BC)…
I is for I is for Indigenous Gold, produced from mines owned by First Nations peoples… Inti, the Incan God of the Sun, whose tears were made of gold… Investment Gold… Inert Gold… Iron Oxide Copper Gold (IOCG) Deposits, though gold is usually a by-product… Gold Innovation, such as the MacArthur-Forrest cyanidation process, amongst many other innovations… and finally, the letter I is also responsible for ‘Invisible' Gold - of the somewhat prolific Carlin-type variety (see above)...
J is for JORC-Compliant Gold, Gold Jewellery… Green and Gold Jerseys… Gold Joint Ventures… and also for Jay Z Gold (an aftershave marketed by the eponymous rapper)…
K is for King Solomon's Gold… the Klondike Gold Rush (Yukon, 1896-99)… Koala Gold (see Eucalyptus Gold), and for Kalgoorlie, still Australia's gold capital…
L is for Lateritic Gold… Leased Gold, Liquid Gold… Lode Gold… Gold Leaf… Gold Loans… Legal Disputes about Gold, of which there have been many, and which invariably it is the lawyers who are the ‘real' winners… the London Bullion Market Association… Lydian Gold, thought to be the first used for currency, "Lust for Gold, not the fault of the metal" (Agricola, 1556)… and of course Low-Grade Gold (very common)… and Low-Cost Gold (very rare)…
M is for Gold as Money… and the Gold Markets… Mercury-Free Gold… for Mesothermal Gold… Gold Medals… ‘Gold', a decent movie about the Bre-X scandal with an entertaining Matthew McConaughey performance… 2.4 Miles, the depth of the Mponeng Gold Mine in South Africa, the world's deepest mine… the Golden Mile in Kalgoorlie… the lesser known Margaret River Gold Rush… and for the Midas Touch…
That completes Strictly Boardroom's first-half attempt to capture the spectrum of gold's many and varied different guises in alphabetical terms.
Gold has something for everyone. What have we missed?
Good hunting.
John Sykes is undertaking a multidisciplinary doctorate at the Centre for Exploration Targeting, UWA and a sessional lecturer on the MBA programme at UWA Business School. He is also a strategist for MinEx Consulting and a director of Greenfields Research, both consultancies specialising in the analysis of mining and exploration across the base, precious and specialty metals sectors (john.sykes@greenfieldsresearch.com).
Allan Trench is MBA Director and Professor at the UWA Business School, a non-executive director of several ASX-listed minerals companies - and the Perth representative for CRU Consulting, a division of independent metals and mining advisory CRU Group (allan.trench@crugroup.com).
NB: A comprehensive bibliography is available upon request!
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