Gold Rushes, Frauds and Fortunes: How Mining Built Civilisation
Gold Rushes, Frauds and Fortunes: How Mining Built Civilisation
For your Sunday thought piece this week, we have my “lecture with funny bits” from the Edinburgh festival last year, which I have just released on YouTube.
Mining is one of the most important industries in human history, yet people don’t seem to think about it. Every civilisation has depended on it. Every technological revolution has depended on it. Every smartphone, electric car, cathedral, railway, battleship and computer depends on stuff that first had to be dug out of the ground.
Mining is also “the world’s oldest profession”, as you shall discover.
From Neanderthals mining flint tens of thousands of years ago, the story passes through the Bronze Age, the Roman Empire, the great silver mines of the Americas, the gold rushes, and on to the giant open-pit operations and AI-driven trucks of today.
Along the way there are fortunes made, fortunes lost, frauds, booms, busts, discoveries, disasters and more than a few eccentric characters. The technology changes. Human nature does not.
I have just released the lecture on YouTube and thought I’d share it here.
Enjoy!
Below also are links to this week’s commentary, and to various recent podcast appearances, including comedian Geoff Norcott’s What Most People think.
Happy Sunday.
Until next time,
Dominic
Here is this week’s commentary:
Here are links to Geoff’s show. You can listen on iTunes here, or on Spotify:
Finally, I also appeared on Doug Casey’s experts roundtable, talking with exploration company Mackay Gold and Silver, which you can watch here.
If you live in a third world country such as the UK, I urge you to own gold or silver. The pound will be further devalued, as will the euro and dollar. The bullion dealer I use and recommend is The Pure Gold Company. They deliver to the UK, the US, Canada and Europe. More here.