AbstractGold has captured mankind's admiration for centuries as a medium of currency or exchange, for personal jewellery and for decorative and ornamental purposes. The mythical tale of Jason and the Golden Fleece may have its origins in the placer miners' technique of placing sheep's fleeces in sluices to capture gold flakes. This practice evolved around 1200bc and perhaps marked the start of the development of the 'art' and 'science' involved in recovering gold which existed at low levels in the Earth's crust and even in sea water. Since then gold processing technology has changed significantly to cope with the increasing scarcity of gold and the complexity of its ores. Today, 1 t of dirt has to be processed to recover a few grams of gold. This difficulty has not stopped mankind from looking for this metal, which is considered both precious and evil by Eastern and Western civilisations. The scarcer the metal becomes, the more sophisticated must be the exploration technology that is developed to look for...