THE WORLD'S GOLD SUPPLY

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1617, 25 February 1903, Page 71 (Supplement)

THE WORLD'S GOLD SUPPLY

Tlio discovery of another Rand in Soutli Africa following as it does on the development of t-ho enormously rich fields ill cnc Klondyke. West Australia, and other placesj is still one more assurance tnar, the "gold fa mi ne” so freely predicieu a few years ago is. to say the least of it, a long way off.

Whether the world's supply of gold is sufficient is a matter of controversy. It certainly was very far from being so large as could be desired as recently as seven or eight years ago-, when it was not much more than half as great as it is now. Between 1865 and 1885 there was a rapid decline in the output, and though this decrease was arrested and a fair increase in the figures was shown for several years Professor Sucss. of the University of Vienna, firm I y believed, on geological grounds, that the deposits of tlio metal were becoming exhausted. As

THE SHORTAGE liad had the effect of lowering the price of oouimodi Lies, and as this had been going on ever since 1873, the professor s opinion created a considerable amount of uneasiness in the world of business, for it was felt that unless new large deposits were discovered a financial and industrial crisis of a most disastrous character was almost certain to ensue. So much weight, indeed, was attached to what Professor Sucss said that the German Government invited him to Berlin in 189-1 to give a lull explanation of his views to the. Monetary Conference then sitting. This he did, and liis testimony gave increased alarm in some quarters, but the utmost satisfaction to the American silverites, who adopted it and put it to great use in the political campaign of 18SG.

It certainly would seem, however, that Professor Suess’s scientific knowledge played him false, for he gave his opinion to the world on the eve of an unprecedented increase in the output of the precious metal. The value of the world’s production in the year 1894 was ,£36,750,000, but from Unit point there was a remarkable upward tendency for five years, the sum representing the worth of the output in 1890 being <£61,650,000. Particularly unfortunate were THE SILVERITES

in proclaiming their belief in the Sucss opinion, for their own country’s output increased from <£7,000,000 in 1834 to <£16,303,000 in 1900. Since 1853 there has, of course, been a decline in tlie total output, the war in South Africa necessitating the closing of the richest mines in the world.

The most satisfactory feature of the increase made within the last tew years is that it came practically entirely from sources which have every appearance of being more or less permanent in character. The field now being worked in the Witwatersra.ud, for instance, will in all probability be of great value for fully .100 .years. * This was not the ease in Australia and California half-a-cenUiry ago, when each of these countries were enjoying a gold boom, for placer deposits are much more quickly exhausted than those in which the gold is found in a matrix of quarts or other substance, from winch it has to be separated bv machinery and chemicals. The remarkable change which lias come over the conditions of gold-min-ing can bo partly understood from the circumstance that, though much more than half the geld now produced lias been obtained from buried veins of ore, at least nine-tenths —according to one authority—of the output of a little more than 20 years ago had been found scattered about amongst the dirt near the surface of the ground-—that is to say, in placer deposits. It is not that, years ago. veins of gold-bearing ore stuff were not known to exist in plentv, but that the enormous cost and difficulty of working a. gold mine had the effect of deterring financiers from risking their money in what might easily prove to bo an unprofitable venture. Gold-d'g-giug in the placers was a much simpler and cheaper matter, and, very naturally, it was preferred to the other means of obtaining the precious metal. It is generally admitted bv those who are engaged in gold-mining that, fhe PUBLISHED STATISTICS

of the annual output of the different fields are not correct, that they are below the actual facts. Every effort is made to prevent theft, but it seems to be beyond dispute that the workmen and other employees manage to convey a certain amount of the metal to their own pockets, as it were, the leakage from the mills of the Transvaal beng estimated at not less than 10 per cent, of the whole. Then, also, in the United States, in Klondyke, and in Australia there are many small individual prospectors who either wish to conceal their gain's or do not take the trouble to report them, arid thus the product obtained by these men is not included in the tables compiled bv the statistician. It is not at all unlikely that the actual output of gold is 20 per cent, greater than that what statistics declare it to be. The fields which at the present time are yielding the largest quantities of gold "will be the chief sources of the world’s supply for a considerable time at least. These are the Rand of South Africa and Cripple Creek, Colorado (both of which are now capable of yielding about <£5,000,000 of the metal a year), together with the Australian fields and those of Klondyke. Alaska, and Siberia. In all these cases the work of extracting gold in,., large quantities has been going on for only a comparatively short time, and, therefore, as has already been mentioned they #re likely to be productive for many years to come, the majority of them for a century or even more. But apart from these, OTHER FIELDS. now known to exist ar© certain to be worked before very long, and among them those at Lydenburg, Murchison, Klerlcsdorp. and De Kaap in the Transvaal, and others at two or three places in West Australia and British Columbia. Considering that companies, with a total nominal capital of *£40,000,000. have been floated

for tlio purpose of working the banket reefs in the Tarkwa district of West Africa, it is evident that many people expect an enormous yield from that source, but. so far. the real worth of the field is a matter of speculation. As regards the unknown, there is no reason whatever to suppose that the world does not possess many fields each quite as rb*h as any that has yet been discovered, and, on the whole, the supply of gold in the future is a matter which (lie financial world in general need not bo particularly apprehensive about. —C.S. in “St. James’s Gazette.”