THE HISTORY of gold first began in a remote ancient time. But without archaeological evidence it is difficult to determine the time and place of the first meeting for humans with the yellow metal, we can only guess about the people, who in different places and at different times who first discovered the original gold. The loss of detailed information about the discovery of gold in the historical record is not to say that we do not have an early record of the use of gold. Gold is mentioned in almost every corner of world history. From the ancient civilizations of Greece, Egypt, Nubia and Rome, gold has become a center of commerce. Fossil research experts have observed that the pieces of natural gold found in Spanish caves are used by Paleolithic Man around 40,000 BC. Consequently, it is not surprising that historical sources can not agree on the exact date on which gold was first used. One states that the discovery of gold was recorded around the year 6000 BC. On the other hand, in 4000 BC A culture, centered on Eastern Europe, began to use gold as an object of decorative fashion and jewelry. At that time, gold might be mined in the Transylvanian Alps or known as Pangaion mountain in Thrace, Bulgaria. Furthermore, Gold was also known by the Sumerians, southern Iraq in 3000 BC, and used for jewelry, decorations, pots, and others found on the tombs of kings of the time.
Similarly in Egypt at about the same time, gold metal has been known as well. There are traces of sophisticated jewelry and coins dating back to 3000 BC in Iraq and as far back as 3100 BC, we have evidence of the gold / silver value ratio in the code of Menes, the founder of the first Egyptian dynasty. In this code it is stated that "one part of gold is equal to two and one half of the value of silver." In 2500 BC, in Abydos Egypt - found various types of jewelry made of gold on the tomb of King Zer - the first dynasty of Egypt. In 1500 BC, Egypt was considered a very rich nation because of its gold, even the 11.3 gram gold coin known as Shekel has been used as a standard of international trade exchange. No less interesting was the Babylonians using fire as a way to test the gold content of a jewelry in 1350 BC. In ancient Egypt, around the time of Seti I (1320 BC), we find the creation of the first gold treasure map we now know is located in the Turin Museum is a papyrus and fragment known as the "mine des Carte". Meanwhile, the Egyptians found a way to prolong the life of gold by inserting gold in a leaf in 1200 BC. At that time they have also tried to mix gold with other metals to increase the hardness of gold and provide color variations. They also found the technique of using candles for the manufacture of gold jewelry. Around 1091 BC, small coins made of square gold were used as currency in the Chinese region.
The first use of gold as money occurred around 700 BC, when the Lydian merchant produced the first coin. It is made of only 63% gold and 27% is a silver blend known as 'electrum'. "The standard unit of value no doubt helped the Lydian merchant to be a success, because with the very rich time of Mermnadae, Lydia's last king (570 -546 BC), Lydia had collected many gold deposits. Gold is money in ancient Greece. The Greeks erected gold throughout the Middle East and the Mediterranean in 550 BC, and both scientists, Plato and Aristotle wrote about gold and had a theory of its origin. Gold is associated with water (logically, as it is mostly found in rivers), and gold is a very dense combination of water and sunlight. In 560 BC, the first coins made of pure gold had been used in Lydia, an empire in Asia Minor in the Turkish region. Their science may be primitive, but the Greeks learned a lot about the practical side of gold mining. At the death of Alexander of Macedonia (323 BC), the Greeks had mined gold from the Hercules Pillar (Gibraltar) all the way east to Asia Minor and Egypt, and we found traces of their placer mines at that time. In the range 218 BC - 202 BC, during the second Punic war with Carthage, Roma gained access to the Spanish gold mining area and separated gold through the river gravel and mining of Hardrock.
In 50 BC, Rome began issuing gold coins called Aureus. The writings of each stage of human history tell of the discovery and use of gold. The Roman historian Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD), for example, described the location of gold mining. The Romans found him while lying in bed and through their dreams knew the gold discovery sites, the Tagus River in Spain, the Po River in Italy, the Hebrus River in Thracia (now Greece), the Pactolus River in Asia Minor (now Turkey) and the Ganges River in India. Then it was only in 600 AD - 699 AD the Byzantine empire regained gold mining in the center of Europe and France, which was an area untouched since the fall of the Roman Empire. In 1700 AD, gold was discovered in Brazil which became the largest gold producer in 1720 AD with nearly two-thirds of world production. in 1799 the 17-pound M gold nugget was found in Cabarrus Country, North Carolina, then the first documented gold in the United States. Then not long after that, the year 1803 AD gold was found in Meadow Creek Little North Carolina that triggered the first gold raid in the United States. 1848 AD John Marshall discovers pieces of gold while building a sawmill for John Sutter near Sacramento, California that triggers the settlement of the California Gold Rush in the United States. Turning to South Africa, in 1868, George Harrison, while digging stones to build a house, he found gold in South Africa, since then, nearly 40% of all gold ever mined.
Then, in 1898 AD, two prospectors discovered gold when he fished in Klondike, Alaska, spawning gold in the last century. In addition, Indonesia also found gold mines, even the largest gold mine located in Indonesia, the Grasberg mine located in Papua, Indonesia. Since 1995, five of the metal mines began to produce gold and are located in Eastern Indonesia. The five mining sites are Mesel (gold), Lanut (gold), Gosowong (gold), Lerokis (gold / copper), and Batu Hijau (copper / gold). The gold mining project in Indonesia is the Martabe project located on the western side of the island of Sumatra, Batang Toru District, North Sumatra. The project was established under the sixth generation Contract of Work signed in April 1997. G-Resources's current major asset is the Martabe mine with 6.5 million ounces of gold and 66 million ounces of silver resources. The Martabe mine is targeted to start production in late 2011 with a capacity of 250,000 ounces of gold and 2-3 million ounces of low-cost silver at US $ 280 per ounces of gold.