Gold is a chemical element which occurs as nuggets or grains in rocks. This dense metal is also soft and shiny making it a natural choice for early jewelry and adornments. Gold is also naturally resistant to corrosion giving it modern appeal in dentistry and electronics. A popular choice for use in everything from wedding rings to coins, gold has been located in almost 90% of the land areas on earth. Even the oceans contain gold, however, extracting it would be too costly on a large scale. Gold is normally combined with other metals as pure gold is too soft to be applied in ways that result in frequent handling. Although gold mining is an important source of world gold, it is also one of the most recycled metals today meaning that the supply and demand dynamics are a little removed from the normal production and consumption cycle.

Gold mining can be traced back to early Egyptians around 3500 B.C. and the largest known deposit of the yellow metal is in South Africa. At the dawn of the 20th century, the Gold Standard Act was enacted in the US causing them to maintain an exchange rate in relation to other countries on the gold standard, a practice that persisted until 1919. Today, gold mines are operated all across the globe with the most important - or at least prominent - in South Africa, the source of 40 percent of modern gold mining, and China.