Apparently quite a few readers were stumped by our gold trivia quiz in the June issue. We’ve been flooded with calls, letters and teletype message s asking f or the answers. For those who may have missed one or two (or more) of the answers, here they are. * The highest ever gold fix by London’s bullion dealers was $850(US) set on th e afternoon of Jan 21, 1980.
* Seven gold coins currently available are the Krugerrand (South Africa), the Maple Leaf (Canada), the Nugget (Australia), the Emperor (Japan), the Panda (Chi na), the Eagle (U.S.A.) and the Ecu (Belgium). According to Consolidated Gold Fields, there were 15 countries that issued official gold coins in 1986.
* The chemical symbol for gold is Au.
* The Mother Lode is in Nevada.
* Individual gold prospectors in Brazil who mine gold by hand are called Garim pieros.
* The gold rush of 1849 was in California.
* The deepest producing gold mine in the world is East Rand Proprietary Mines’ Far East mine in South Africa.
* The gold mine with the highest production in the world is Free State Consoli dated Gold Mines (Freegold) of South Africa, formed in 1986, which produces at a rate of more than 100 tonnes of gold a year. Freegold is an amalgamation of several predecessor companies, but it mines what is essentially one large orebody a nd eventually it will be one huge mining complex.
* The melting point of gold is 1,063 degrees C.
* The biggest gold-producing mines in Canada, South Africa and Australia are, respectively, the Page- Williams mine, Freegold and the Kidston mine.
* In Greek mythology Jason captured the Golden Fleece.
* Cecil Rhodes’ father was a preacher.
* The West Wits line was discovered by a Canadian geologist, Carlton Jones, us ing a magnetometer.
* The common language of South African gold mine workers is a type of pigeon- English called Fanigolo.
* Gold is synonymous with Edinburgh because the ship Castle Rock, carrying a l oad of gold bars, sank there.
* West Driefontein narrowly averted a disastrous flood in 1969.
* Barney Barnato, who was Henry Oppenheimer’s partner in the Kimberley diamond mines, committed suicide jumping overboard from a ship sailing from Capetown, South Africa, to London.
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