Why dragons love gold

Replies 17 Views Jun 29, Squint-eyed Southerner. Dumb question about dragons. Replies 26 Views 2K. Aug 20, Elthir. Replies 2 Views Nov 1, Squint-eyed Southerner. The Inspiration of the Valar. John Oct 2, "The Silmarillion".

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Artisanal and small-scale mines are responsible for similar, smaller scale, havoc but in larger numbers. Gold mining is particularly destructive also from the pollution point of view: mercury and cyanide are the two main chemicals employed in gold extraction. For every gram of gold produced using the amalgamation process between one and two grams of mercury are released in metallic form or as vapor. Every year, 2, tonnes of mercury arising from human activities such as coal-fired power plants and gold mining are emitted into the atmosphere, according to FOEN, the Swiss environment office.

The heavy metal is found at the site of contamination but because of its extreme volatility also at locations far from where was originally released. Cyanide, mainly used in large industrial mines, is highly toxic. Low-grade ores are stacked into heaps and sprayed with a cyanide solution at a concentration of about one kilogram NaCN per ton of ore, a few grams of gold.

The precious metal is complexed by the cyanide to form soluble derivatives, e. Au CN 2. The "pregnant liquor" is separated from the solids which are then discarded to a tailing pond or spent heap, the recoverable gold having been removed. The metal is recovered from the "pregnant solution" by reduction with zinc dust or by adsorption onto activated carbon. This process can result in environmental and health problems. A number of environmental disasters have followed the overflow of tailing ponds at gold mines.

Cyanide contamination of waterways resulted in numerous cases of human and aquatic species mortality. Switzerland hosts the environmental policy center of competence for chemical products and toxic waste in Geneva, Global Environment Facility GEF , a member countries environmental cooperation voluntary organization. Coincidentally most of the gold produced in the world physically transits Swiss refineries. Degradation of the social environment is an associated issue too.

Although the vast majority of artisanal scale mines are undertaking a vital livelihood activity, there is strong evidence that elements of organized crime are involved. A host of players have vested interests in maintaining the status quo of informality and illegality for example because of money laundering or smuggling schemes or of support to civil war. Incidents occur related to unsanitary work environment, child labor, human rights abuses.

Some have little to do with the mining company but take place on or in the direct vicinity of the mining concessions. Furthermore large industrial mines don't necessarily provide jobs for local unskilled populations, as is the case for the mines in the Tarahumara territories of northern Mexico where literally none of the locals are employed and all the mine workers are flown in and out from neighboring regions to an otherwise isolated mine.

Gold mining is a very energy-intensive industry. At European street pump rates, it would have accounted for nearly half of production costs. Incidentally, Bitcoin perpetuates the energy wastefulness of gold, another money-form which has materialized as an environmental nightmare. There is an ample literature on gold recycling and gold is often cited as an example of virtuosity of circular economy. Unfortunately an example of something of which we already have too much.

A broader view of how the "system" works is badly needed. Most of the gold ever dug out of the earth in the whole history of humanity is still stored somewhere since it is precious and doesn't corrupt.

In a chemical sense. The best estimates currently available suggest that around , tonnes of gold have been mined throughout history, of which around two-thirds have been mined since Because of its indestructibility, almost all of it is still around in one form or another.

On earth, we store a supply of gold large enough to keep us going for more than years. But going where? Many think of gold as something without which financial markets would not work. On the other side liquidity problems with a gold-based monetary system caused the Nixon administration to abandon the gold standard and from that point forward no currency has a natural resource tethered to it.

Most people don't have a clear opinion about the opportunity of saving gold as a reserve of value but many stash gold in deposit boxes anyway.

Freud interpreted this behavior in his usual way. Distinguished economists seem to have a clearer idea about the subject for example, in this excerpt from General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, par. VI , Keynes says with a sense of humor worthy a Monty Python sketch:.

Just as wars have been the only form of large-scale loan expenditure which statesmen have thought justifiable, so gold-mining is the only pretext for digging holes in the ground which has recommended itself to bankers as sound finance; and each of these activities has played its part in progress….

Governments seem to know everything there is to know, in their vaults, they accumulate gold in gigantic amounts and at tremendous cost. Central bank reserves consist of foreign currencies and precious metals, mostly gold. From the following table, one can see central bank gold distribution among countries, as a percentage of their reserves and in grams per citizen. Interestingly the two largest economies, the US and China are at the opposite sides of the spectrum.

Modern money theory doesn't support the use of physical gold as currency reserve. Collectively, at the end of , central banks held around 31, tonnes of gold, approximately one-fifth of all the gold ever mined. Moreover, these holdings are highly concentrated in the advanced economies of Western Europe and North America, a legacy of the days of the gold standard.

This means that central banks have immense pricing power in the gold market, crucial to the fate of gold mines all over the world. In recognition of this, major European central banks signed the Central Bank Gold Agreement CBGA in , limiting the amount of gold that signatories can collectively sell in any one year. Why Do Dragons Hoard Treasure? Thorin describes the conundrum pretty well himself, saying Dragons steal gold and jewels, you know, from men and elves and dwarves, wherever they can find them; and they guard their plunder as long as they live which is practically forever, unless they are killed , and never enjoy a brass ring of it.

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