I’ve always been fascinated by the phenomenon of gold rushes…swarms of men crowdinto a remote area, to try to become rich. We’ve seen quite a few of them…California in 1849, South Africa in the 1880’s, Alaska in 1890…there was even a minor one in new Guinea (Papua) in the 1930’s.
What are the chances of another major gold strike ? Or have all the likely deposis of gold been mined out long ago?
I always wished I could have been around for the Alaska (Klondike) Gold Rush of the 1890’s-maybe I’ve read too many Jack London stories…man that was living!
To get a good gold rush going, you need two things–land that has been relatively unexplored, so that surface gold hasn’t already been mined or panned, and land that isn’t already owned, so that people can stake their claim without getting (legally) chased away with guns. Both of these conditions are pretty much absent in today’s world. Maybe someday we’ll see a mineral rush on another planet.
I wonder what the last gold rush was. I hadn’t been aware there was one in New Guinea in the 1930’s. I’ve got to think that was just about the last one.