The New California Gold Rush

There's nothing like $1,000 per ounce gold to get people interested in prospecting:

It has been almost 160 years since the first California gold rush but, with prices hitting record highs, prospectors are once again flocking to the state’s rivers and deserts in search of the precious metal.

Gold’s ascent – prices crossed the $1,000 an ounce barrier this month and remain well above $900 – has sent sales of mining equipment soaring.

“This is the second big California gold rush. We’ve had a lot of phone calls from people who are quitting their jobs and prospecting full-time.”

Of course, environmentalists are are not happy with this new-found love for the yellow metal:

With recreational prospectors combing California’s rivers for gold, the commodity is clearly in demand. But not everyone is pleased at the fall-out from the 21st century’s first gold rush, with environmentalists expressing concern at the sharp rise in the number of commercial mining claims staked in the western US.

In California, location of the most famous US gold rush in 1849, the number of claims has soared. In the first quarter of 2005 there were 132 commercial mining claims, according to the Bureau of Land Management. But by the first quarter of 2008 the number of commercial claims had rocketed to 2,274, with the vast majority for gold mining projects, according to Roger Haskins, senior specialist for mining law and adjudication at the BLM.

“Mining is the biggest source of toxic pollution in the US,” says Dusty Horwitt, senior analyst for public lands with the Environmental Working Group, a non-partisan environmental watchdog. “Yet under legislation that passed in 1872 there isn’t much federal authorities can do to stop mining going ahead, even if water supplies or other precious resources are at risk.”

What goes up and still come down. I remember $800 gold the last time that happened in the early 80's. There's plenty of reasons to think it might stay high now, but you never know.