During the Gold Rush, gold was mostly obtained by panning and sluicing. These practices relied on gold deposits, which were usually found in stream beds or in deposits of sand and gravel.
The modern hard rock method of mining gold produces most of the precious metal in the world today. Heavy machinery is used to dig down to veins of gold in rock deep beneath the Earth's surface. The deepest hard rock gold mine in North America is Agnico-Eagle's LaRonde mine in Quebec, Canada. The deepest shaft of that mine reaches over 2.48 miles deep underground.
The deepest mines in the world are the TauTona (Western Deep Levels) and Savuka gold mines in the Witwatersrand region of South Africa, which are currently working at depths of more than 3,900 m!
The chemical symbol for gold is Au. This comes from the Latin "aurum" which, when translated, means "shining dawn." Gold was one of the first precious metals mined because it is easily accessible and can be found in the ground in it's natural form.
