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Sunday, January 20, 2013

Unlock The Secrets Of Retrieving GOLD


Gold is exceptional. No other element is so beautiful and useful. What distinguishes gold from other elements is that it evokes power and affluence like no other substance. A silver ingot may look handsome, but a gold bar causes an involuntary intake of breath.
 
The origin of gold ore deposits is still up for debate. Depending on the age of the surrounding rock, popular theories include the possibilities that gold washes in from rivers and streams from volcanic mountains and that hot spring fluids deposit gold inside the rocks.

 
A team of geochemists, led by Jason Kirk from the University of Arizona, used radiochemistry to determine the age of the gold. Rhenium and osmium are both naturally found in gold. Rhenium naturally decays into osmium with a half-life of 42.3 billion years! By dissolving gold grains and measuring the ratio of rhenium to osmium, the gold was aged at a quarter of a billion years older than the rock. The geochemists also concluded that the rhenium-to-osmium ratio means that the gold came from the Earth's mantle and not its crust. They proposed that the gold originated from volcanic rocks and not from granite in the Earth's crust. Gold-panning enthusiasts take this finding as a golden opportunity for uncovering other gold deposits. 

 
Gold weighs in at 19.3 grams per cubic centimetre. It is 19 times heavier than water, making gold one of the heaviest metals. As a result, gold deposits are found settled at the bottom of river beds or concentrated in soil. The host rocks are subject to weathering and chemical erosion. Eventually, they are broken down to expose the quartz and gold. Weathering also fragments the quartz, releasing any gold contained in it. Since gold is so heavy, it sinks. This specific attribute has led to the success of gold panning in both modern and ancient times. Gold can be panned in water or the surrounding debris and sifted and sorted easily.

 
Gold's density and stability lend to its accessibility. Its softness and conductive properties lead to its wide utility. Its colour adds beauty. All of its inherent chemistry designates gold as the world's most treasured metal.

Gold has been used by a number of diverse civilizations throughout history. It continues to be internationally recognized as a symbol of wealth and artistic merit. Egyptian Pharaoh King Tutankhamun of the 14th century BC was encased in a coffin of pure gold surrounded by priceless golden objects. Gold is still the metal of choice in the 21st century for declaring one's undying love and commitment. 
 
It has been said that a young boy's fishing expedition started America's first gold rush. It began in 1799 in Cabarrus County in the Piedmont region of North Carolina, when 12-year-old Conrad Reed looked into Little Meadow Creek on his family's property and saw an odd, shiny yellow rock. When he carried home the 17-pound chunk, his father, a Hessian veteran of the American Revolution named John Reed, thought it fit for nothing better than a doorstop. A few years later, though, the farmer took his son's catch to a jeweler in Fayetteville, who shrewdly asked Reed how much he wanted for it. Reed naively proposed $3.50, and the bargain was made. The hunk of gold was actually worth nearly a thousand times more.

Reed soon learned he'd been hoodwinked, and he was determined to find more gold on his property. He set up a mining operation on Little Meadow Creek that frequently turned up additional specimens of gold. The unearthing of a 28-pound nugget attracted gold hunters and the curious from far and wide. The Reed mine is now a North Carolina historic site where visitors can pan for gold, walk the abandoned mine tunnels, and explore Little Meadow Creek, whose ripples show little of the gold-seeking tumult that once roiled its waters. 


The exceptional yellow metal has driven America mad during its history. It has launched exploration, sparked creativity, churned passion, and inspired much foolishness and cruelty. Gold fever periodically convulses us in nearly every sphere of activity--a malady that brings both pleasure and angst.


NB: For more Gold Panning Tips visit http://www.buzzle.com/articles/gold-panning-tips.html or http://www.oberonaustralia.com.au/visitor-information/things-to-see-do/fossicking/

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Crazy and Funny Photos taken at the right moment


Thursday, January 19, 2012

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

After Freezing Rain

Freezing rain is caused when you have a warm mass of air in the middle altitudes between the ground and the cloud deck, followed by a mass of freezing air near the surface. When the precipitation falls from the cloud, it will start as snow. As it encounters the warm air, it will melt into the usual rain. But right before it reaches the ground, it enters the area of below-freezing air and cools to right around freezing -- or perhaps just below, a process called "supercooling."






Monday, May 23, 2011

GOLD

Sought after since the beginning of recorded history, gold remains a highly valued metal. Reaching record highs recently, the rise in the price of gold comes just as annual worldwide mine production has decreased - down by nearly 8% since 2001. In human history, only 161,000 tons of gold have been mined - more than half of that extracted in just the past 50 years. Collected here are a handful of recent photographs of people searching for, mining, rediscovering, celebrating, buying and selling gold.


Children from Turkana area of Kanukurdio pan for flakes of gold which helps sustain their families on November 9, 2009 near Lodwar, Kenya.


A gold trader weighs gold in Cauca, Colombia on November 17, 2009.

A man holds a spoon full of gold leaf, ready to eat it with his sushi at the "Seven Sushi Samurai" Sushi of the Year awards 2009 at the Olympia exhibition center in west London, on November 14, 2009. The gold leaf was an ingredient in last year's winner Mitsunori Kusakabe's entry.

A Japanese girl admires a gold model named "Wishing to shooting stars" at a gold and silver craft exhibition in Tokyo on October 23, 2009. The 30cm-tall, 15kg pure gold artifact is worth 130 million yen (US $1.3 million).

Trays with gold ingots are placed in a room for final weighing and packaging at the Krastsvetmet plant in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk November 16, 2009.

Gold figurines on display in a shop window in Hong Kong on November 17, 2009.

Gold busts of (l-r) Chinese leaders President Hu Jintao, former president Jiang Zemin, late patriarch Deng Xiaoping and Mao Zedong, are displayed at a gold exhibition in Beijing, China on November 8, 2009.

Gold bars are pictured at the Ginza Tanaka store in Tokyo October 23, 2009.

A worker holds a geological core sample containing copper and gold to visitors at the Oyu Tolgoi mine site in Khanbogd village, Umnugobi province, Mongolia on Saturday Nov. 7, 2009. Mongolia is trying to capitalize on its vast mineral wealth to help the country lift itself out of poverty

Sharon Brumley pours fusion samples into cone molds to determine the total gold content in a sample at the AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. Cripple Creek & Victor gold mine in Colorado on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009.

Colombian gold prospectors mine for the precious metal on the river Dagau, Zaragoza province, Cauca, Colombia on November 17, 2009. About 8,000 gold prospectors work illegally on the Dagua river to support their families, local authorities said.

A woman wades deep under a river bank to collect mud to pan for gold in Pidie district in Indonesia's Aceh province November 2, 2009. Residents in the area engaged in traditional gold mining can get about 1.5-2 grams of gold and earn 275,000 rupiah ($28) per day.

A carbon recovery circuit adsorbs gold in a sodium cyanide solution at the AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. Cripple Creek & Victor gold mine in Colorado on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009.

A statue of a bird of prey made of gold is pictured at a gold and silver exhibition at the Ginza Tanaka store in Tokyo October 23, 2009.

A pure gold statue of Buddha is displayed at the Ginza Tanaka store in Tokyo November 26, 2009.

Hava Katz, the head of the national treasures of Israel's Antiquities Authority, holds up a 1,000-year-old gold coin minted in Egypt and dated 1,095 AD, supposedly brought to Jerusalem by Muslim pilgrims, during an exhibition at the Davidson Archeological center in Jerusalem's Old city on November 11, 2009.

A visitor touches the world's largest solid gold brick weighing 220kg (worth over US $7.8 million at today's price), at the Jinguashi Gold Museum in Ruifang, Taipei county, on December 2, 2009.

A Christie's employee looks at a creation "Relief Eponge" by Yves Klein on display at the auction house in London, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2010.. The gold sponge relief creation is to be auctioned at the "Post-war and Contemporary" sale with an estimated price of 5.7 to 8 million euros (US $8.2 to 11.4 million)

Pure gold casting grain is displayed for a photograph at Dvir & Stoler Refining in New York, U.S., on Monday, Jan. 4, 2010.

A gold miner pushes a wheelbarrow to carry rocks which will be processed for gold in an artisanal mine in Abangares, north of San Jose, Costa Rica on December 9, 2009. Costa Rica is pushing to legalize a 600 informal miners of small-scale miners who scrape out tiny amounts of gold from abandoned mine shafts using dangerous and polluting techniques.

Molten gold and flux used to remove impurities glows red hot as it is melted in an induction melting machine at Dvir & Stoler Refining in New York, U.S., on Monday, Jan. 4, 2010.

Robert Stoler pours molten gold into an ingot mold at Dvir & Stoler Refining in New York, U.S., on Monday, Jan. 4, 2010.

A model displays pure gold Disney character dolls showing Snow White and the seven dwarfs, priced at 30 million yen ($300,000 USD) and produced by Tanaka Kikinzoku Jewelry in Tokyo on November 4, 2009 for the promotion of Blu-ray disks of Disney movies.

A Caterpillar Inc. mining truck moves along a road at the AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. Cripple Creek & Victor gold mine in Victor/Cripple Creek, Colorado, on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009. AngloGold Ashanti Ltd., Africa's largest gold producer, purchased Golden Cycle Gold Corp. in January 2008 to gain full control of this mining site, its only active operation in the U.S..

An artisan makes gold ornaments at a jewelery factory in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata November 13, 2009.

Illegal miners search for gold on the mountain of Tumpang Pitu in Banyuwangi, East Java, Indonesia on November 21, 2009. The mine has been in operation since June 2009 and local villagers have began protesting because the waste produced by the mine is polluting the environment.

An illegal miner pans for gold at the mountain of Tumpang Pitu in Banyuwangi, East Java, Indonesia on November 21, 2009.

People work in an illegal gold mine in a national park forest near Novo Progresso in Brazil's northern state of Paral on September 15, 2009..

Gold-toothed football player Chris Johnson of the Tennessee Titans sits on the bench during their game against the San Francisco 49ers at Candlestick Park on November 8, 2009 in San Francisco, California.

A goldsmith works on a gold ornament at a workshop in Chandigarh, India on November 23, 2009.

Bulgarian archaeologist Veselin Ignatov holds a gold-plated silver cup with an image of the Greek God of love Eros, found at a Thracian mound near the village of Karanovo, Bulgaria on November 17, 2009. A team of archaeologists led by Ignatov found a chariot, two silver cups, golden rings and jewelry, clay and glass artifacts dating back to the first century A.D..

Gold-plated Berlin Bear awards are lined up for the upcoming Berlinale International Film Festival at Noak bronze foundry in Berlin January 20, 2010.

An overall view of the open pit gold-copper Cadia mine in Orange district in Australia on January 8, 2010.