Most of the of the gold that circulates around the world today comes form deep mining, and most of it comes from hard rock mining. This means that most of the gold found this way is not in a pure form, but is mixed with other elements, most commonly with silver and copper.

The most used method of hard rock mining is blasting. Before any holes are drilled or any blasts taken place, a lot of preparation goes into planing. Engineers,with geologists, drill and blast engineers and voids officers, design the size and shape of the blasts. Miners blast parts of the rock containing gold veins and in this rock form the ore is shipped to the surface and then refined.

The refining process takes place in mill or a processing plant. There are several stages of ore processing taking place since the ore comes in to the plant and a dore bullion is formed.

First part is the grinding. The ore that comes in is grind at the mill until it becomes a fine paste or dust. Water is being added slowly during this process so it forms a slury. When this slury is created a process of gold cyanidation takes place. This is a method that is most commonly used to extract gold from the mined ore. The cyanide is added to the slury to create a solution. Once the solution is created the rock, being heavy falls to the bottom. After some time zinc, or actually zinc powder is added to the solution in order to separate the liquid containing the gold from the rocky bottom. This is all possible because cyanide bond naturally with gold, an even more readily with zinc. This enables us to filter out the gold from this solution. Gold extracted this way is then further purified by smelthing. First a chemical flux is added to the metal. This mix is then poured in a furnace and melted at ove 1000 c. These high temperatures cause a separation of gold from most of the impuriries such as zinc,copper and iron. Molten gold is then cast in a mould and allowed to cool. This way you get a bar wich is called a dore bar.

You can have gold dore bars in different sizes and purity. It depends on the type and size of the mine, and on the kind of ore that mine processes. Gold dore bars usualy run from 65% to 95% of gold in them . In a gold dore bar a variety of other elements can be found. Most usually those elements are silver, copper, iron and zink. Most of today's gold mines rafine their gold dore bars up to 92% gold purity. Usualy they are sent to refineries for further processing into gold bullions for greater purity.

In the refineries gold is further processed and refined un to gold bars of 99,5% ,and above, purity.

Pure gold is being separated from other substances and elements mostly by chemical and electrolytic processes. During the chemical process chlorine gas is being pumped into the molten gold. This cause all the impurities to float on the surface of the molten metal. From here it is quite easy to separate the impurities from pure cold. Gold bullions gained this way are somewhere around 99.5% pure. For grater purity the electrolytic method is used. This process is called the wohlwill process, and it is very expensive and far more complicated, but is worthwhile because it produces gold of 99,99% purity. In this method an electric current is used. The electric current is passed through electrolyte solution of hydrochloric acid and gold chloride. Gold of 99.5% purity is used as the anode and 99.99% pure gold plates out onto the cathode.

Gold of 99,5% purity is molded into gold bullions. In order for a gold ingot or bar to be a gold bullion it needs to be least 99,5% pure. Central banks and investors who hold gold usually do so in the form of bullion because it is the easiest and safest way to own and store gold.

Gold bullions are also used for trading gold as a commodity on the global market.In London market people deal in LGD ( London Goods Delivery) gold bullion bars. When

people think of a gold bar this is the picture they see. This LGD bar of bullion weighs 400 troy ounces - about 12.4 kilograms - and is about eleven inches long. It is stamped on the top with the

manufacturer's name, the weight, and the assayed purity. Because the bulion is made of pure gold it is very soft. On the realg bar you can see scratches and dents. If you see a prefect one, know that it is most probably fake or quite impure. The London Goods Delivery bullion bar is the most traded gold bar in the world, and that makes London the place to go if you want to trade in gold bullion bars. London Goods Delivery bullion is the most cheapest form of gold to deal with, and to own. This means that it can fetch a great price at the global market.

When trading with gold bullions in London you would be doing so in the London bullion market, which is conducted among the members of the LBMA. ( London Bullion Market Association ) The LBMA is the one who produces Good Delivery Lists. This is where all the credited refiners are listed as well as their listing dates and all the markings of their bars. Most of the trading here is done via over the counter market, and London is the biggest center for this kind of trading. Every four days the amount of gold traded here equals an annual gold mine production.