USGS: Science for a Changing World - USGS visual identity mark and link to main Web site at http://www.usgs.gov/

Gold
Line drawing of a gold prospector and his mule     Through the ages, men and women have cherished gold, and many have had a compelling desire to amass great quantities of it -- so compelling a desire, in fact, that the frantic need to seek and hoard gold has been aptly named "gold fever." Gold was among the first metals to be mined because it commonly occurs in its native form -- that is, not combined with other elements -- because it is beautiful and imperishable, and because exquisite objects can be made from it.

This General-Interest Publication brochure has been made available in Portable Document Format. Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to view it. If you do not have Acrobat Reader 3.0 (or later) installed on your computer, click HERE to download a free copy.

VIEW the complete report [1020 K PDF file].
VIEW a text-only [no graphics] HTML version.

VIEW a list of other USGS General Interest Publications

U.S. Department of the Interior
U.S. Geological Survey
This page is <URL: https://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/gold/>
Maintained by: Publications Services
Last modified 31 July 2001