Gold: The Race for the World's Most Seductive Metal

Well written and very informative, enjoyable easy read.

I'm an academic who studies gold mining, so I was interested to read this book. It is an excellent overview of prospecting, gold mining, and gold markets. Hart moves easily between stories of his visits to gold mines and his interviews with financial experts. A major part of the book involves his retelling of the history of gold mining. Hart's prose is more than well-written, it is lively and at times epigrammatic ("gold mining is its own country"). It's impressive that he is able to explain heap leaching and gold hedging in terms that not only make sense to the nonspecialist, but actually makes these topics as interesting to us as they are to the engineers and financiers that make their living from them. Its worthwhile to compare this book with Bernstein's "The Power of Gold: The History of an Obsession," which is the other major popular book on the subject of gold. Bernstein's book is older, more widely read, and tells a much more conventional story of gold, with more attention to the history of gold. It is also reads like it was written by a committee and punched up by a consultant. Hart's story is much more up to date and much better told, and brings a welcome focus to the post-2008 world of gold (especially after 2008, when the gold radically increased in value). If you had to chose to read only one book on gold, I'd recommend Hart's book over Bernstein's. That said, there are imperfections in this book. The book is clearly conceptualized and has an overarching narrative -- Hart wants to show us that our desire for gold is ultimately irrational, and leads to gold rushes (both geological and financial) that lead to dangerous and unpredictable outcomes for people caught up in them. Its a valuable lesson. But I feel Hart could have done a better job using this theme to lead us through the material in the book. Also, the chapters seem unfocused at times. Hart has trouble not telling a good story when he runs across one, and as a result chapters sometimes veer off in unexpected directions (the conquest of the Ashanti and the Brink's-Mat Heist are good examples of this). Hart's discussion of the impact of mining on developing nations doesn't draw on any of the social science in this area. And in a story of gold rushes in Africa, mightn't we expect more on the history of gold rushes in California, Australia or Alaska? In a book of this scope, I suppose its inevitable that only some topics get attention, and one drawback of this is that some readers may find the topics they care about discussed to little, or not enough. But overall, I give the book high marks. It conveys the excitement of mining without degenerating into overheated prose, and gives a good sense of the world of gold mining (particularly on the ground) to readers who will probably never run a sluice, let alone a flot mill. Insiders in the mining world will have to wade through some of what they know already to get at the bigger picture. But there's no doubt this is an excellent first step for readers interested in gold, especially for those wanting to go deeper -- half of the book is endnotes. Here's a list of the topics by chapter: The first chapter deals with illegal miners in South Africa. The second chapter tells the story of Spanish conquest in the new world and the role of gold in that story. The account of Pizarro's capture of Atahualpa here is better than that in Guns, Germs, and Steel. The third chapter examines the role of gold and silver in the world economy, especially in the nineteenth century, and covers arguments about bimetallism and the gold standard, topics that not every author manages to make as interesting as Hart does. The fourth chapter discusses Nixon's decision to decouple the dollar from gold. The fifth chapter is an account of the Carlin Trend in Nevada and the rise of a modern mining industry that exploits microscopic gold finds. The sixth chapter focuses on the growth of Barrick gold. The seventh chapter moves to China and tells the story both of the Linglong gold mine, and of the history of Chinese gold mining in general, with a focus on the changing relationship the government has to artisanal and medium-scale mining. The eighth chapter discusses the difficulties that majors have getting a foothold in China and the dangers of nationalization. Chapter nine describes the secretive world of gold trading and the securitization of gold as a commodity. Chapter ten continues this discussion of secrecy by describing the more secretive, and at times criminal, aspects of the gold market, ranging from bank robberies to price fixing. The last two chapters describe gold mining in Africa, both in Mali and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The book describes both artisanal mining and the large-scale Kibali mine. So in sum, I'd highly recommend this book, despite its occasional imperfections.

This is collection of stories about the mining of gold and the exploitation of the people who mine it. It's a combination of the current world and the history of its exploration and extraction. The section on South Africa is very gritty and sad. The section on the Pizarro brothers and the unintended consequences of the import of gold into Europe is excellent. The author avoids a lot of technical jargon in ore processing but you get an accurate sense that it is not good for the local environment. For a book that's not really about monetary gold, some of the good and the bad points of the gold standard are discussed with clarity. The notes and index are excellent. Now, why do I knock of two stars? This sort of book about people and places cries out for photographs, maps, and diagrams. Hey, Simon and Schuster editors: a picture is worth a thousand words. You get no sense of depths, distances, etc without maps and diagrams. One minus star for some of the stories that are (a) boring and (b) don't following a beginning-middle-end narrative. You just get the middle: After being with Ralph Roberts for 26 pages, one never learns where he wound up after 1960. For its flaws, it is a book worth reading to get a perspective on gold's role in the modern world.

Gold is a great read, and is full of unexpected and little known information about gold mining (and mineral mining in general), and gold's role in economics. It might stimulate a greater curiosity in mining and geology on general. The range of subjects is breath-taking, from the gold pursuit of the Spanish on the New World to the West African gold empires to the history of the linkage of gold to currency to the development of gold based financial derivatives. I would love to have a long dinner with the author, just to hear what was left out! Criticisms are the weak organization, which is a challenge at best with so many sub-topics, and relatively little discussion of the environmental and social effects plaguing modern mining, especially when gold prices are so high. Indeed, the New York Times ran an article about massive recent off-the-books and illegal mercury imports into Indonesia, to support low level mining of gold. I am sure one could write much longer about the subject...but alas, the book must be of finite length!

The book contains a broad overview of the metal from both a mining and financial standpoint. I liked this approach because it not only informs the reader regarding gold markets and the approach to valuing gold, but also gives the reader a better perspective of how the metal is mined and the difficulties therein. The book succeeds very well in debunking the aura that so often surrounds investment in the metal, particularly the value linkage between money and the metal. i would recommend this book to anyone interested in understanding the state of the current gold market and how one should approach in investment in the metal. A good read

An excellent history of gold. I highly recommend for anyone who is considering buying gold. I was amazed at the amount of gold being traded on a daily basis. I was also fascinated by how volatile the price of gold is. The book made me think a lot about how currencies are manipulated. The story I missed was how gold and oil prices relate in this era of sanctions being placed against other countries. With the possibility of peace with Iran, there is a chance that oil prices may drop some simply due to the reduction of the transaction cost of oil due to dollars not being available to Iran.

This book is a real eye opener on the dirty little secrets of the industry. A lot of crime, manipulation, and price fixing goes on. The numbers are there, do the math: with worldwide production of gold being mined, the current high price is due to a hyped, manufactured demand.

This book discusses in detail the mining of gold, and the role of gold in money and finance. However, it completely neglects the remarkable uses of gold in technology, metallurgy, and jewelry. The most interesting chapter is the first one, about the cland3estine mining of gold in South Africa.

Matthew Hart has written several books which are very informative and his first hand knowledge of the subjects researched make fascinating reading. Gold was no exception as he writes not only past stories but the 'now' , including real people working in the gold industry. (Diamond was another fascinating read.). I am waiting for the next book!

Exceptional overview of gold's fractious history and updates on the latest mining findings and a bleak picture of its future. The book starts off with South African mining of gold, and the unique challenges the miners face. It speaks about endemic corruption in the enterprise and a brief background of the blood lined history of gold mining there. It starts of with a tour of a large mine and Matt Hart does a great work in transporting the reader vicariously to the inhospitable and borderline unlivable conditions inside. The book then outlines why gold was famously called "barbaric relic" and how South America's loss was Europe's gain in the medieval times. The details provided are just right enough and it doesnt bog down at all with historical trappings that the lay people need not be interested in. Smart move. The next section deals with the gold standard and gold's grip on global economy. This part really could use some exposition as I was really looking for a thorough and detailed overview of the gold standard. However, keeping in light the amount of subject matter it covers, it just about scratches the surface of economic history and focuses more on the political implications and why the gold standard was ultimately untenable. Finally the best part of the book - rise of large scale gold mining and how companies like Newport and Barrick Gold basically grew into the behemoths they are today. It also traces the rise of securitization of gold and ultimately how it essentially cannibalized the institutional demand which was concentrated in mining shares. (Barrick gold has dropped from $60 in 2011 to $8 as of Dec 2015). I found this part very interesting as I was always interested in the spread of gold mining shares vs the commodity itself and why gold mining shares were so undervalued to the juggernaut of ETFs - the GDX ETF. It also delves a bit into how geologists managed to recognize important gold mines (a bit passable but who will remember this part?). It includes with a profile of the most prolific non-miner, Peter Munk himself and his strained childhood. I was not aware of his childhood but I recommend other readers to read about him. He is one of the very few CEOs who arent afraid to openly air their viewpoints. It also covers mining in China and how China became the largest miner of gold in the world. This is the weakest section of the book. The author openly admits to using just one book as a reference for Chinese mining data. To be fair to him, China is famously opaque and it shows in the prose. He is forced to use filler prose (funny reference to a verbose Chinese lady who was showing around and her scary driving skills). I kind of understand his problem as he managed to get very little actual substance to write about and had to essentially fill some pages. Finally, it discusses the latest major mining avenues - Africa and how bleak and grim the gold mining industry is. Gold really lives up to it reputation - a barbarous relic. Its history is filled with misery, deceit and bloodshed and its future holds the same as well.

A wonderful book. Wide ranging and erudite. The author draws from many historical and broad sources to put together a fascinating account of human behaviour and avarice. Enjoyed it thoroughly.

This is a well written and interesting non-comprehensive popular (non-scholarly) account of the human admiration for gold and the complexities and problems related to getting it out of the ground and into circulation. The book does lack a clearly stated thesis and seems to be written more for entertainment and informative value for people who lack much knowledge on the subject of its history and procurement processes - which would include me. I think that one could fairly say that it is a bit of a mish mash of topics concerning gold. It is definitely not a book about how to go about buying and selling gold, and reading it serves as something of an antidote to the gold bugs promoting gold as the ultimate safe-haven. The contents: Chapter 1: gold mining in modern South Africa chapter 2: the Spanish quest for gold in the New world and the economic consequences for Europe chapter 3: essentially introduces the gold standard chapter 4: Nixon abandons the Gold Standard chapter 5: "invisible gold" discovered in Nevada chapter 6: Gold production in Nevada takes off once the price is right chapter 7: China's Linglong gold and communisms distrust of gold chapter 8: China changes and is open for development in gold but don't expect foreigners to get the big profits chapter 9: The Spider eases gold trading through paper movement chapter 10: Gold is not quite the safe haven that some claim it to be chapter 11: Gold development in Senegal and Mali chapter 12: The Kibali goldfields of DPR of Congo There are endnotes keyed by page number, and a general index Admittedly, the book ends on an ambivalent note about the contrasts of the people involved in the gold quest in Africa, perhaps the world's "poorest continent", dire poverty residing nearby to modern technology and creature comforts protected by security. I think that Hart has ended this way to leave the reader to ponder the human love affair with gold, it seems that he wants his readers to see the more brutal and inhumane side of this affair Without spelling it out in so many words I think that he wishes to contrast the desire for monetary security desired by the gold proponents against their predicted economic collapse of the world financial system with the insecurity of the gold industry and that which it generates as people fight over access etc. and hence this is why his last two chapters document the uglier side of the gold business in Africa and not the gold mines of Europe, North America or even perhaps Russia. If there is an unstated thesis to this book I would take it to be: The "gold bugs" love affair with the so called security of gold leads to an awful lot of insecurity around the world in many, perhaps most, of those regions where it is being extracted and frankly it probably just not worth the price in human misery which it extracts. Or that's at least how I am walking away from reading this book.

è necessario essere un pò dentro l'argomento per apprezzare questo testo. Da neofiti può sembrare noioso e di non facile comprensione. Scrittura in un inglese facile e scorrevole. Per me che lavoro in un'azienda fornitrice di prodotti di consumo per le miniere d'oro, è stata una lettura utilissima e molto piacevole.