Gold: A Journey with Idris Elba (2023) Movie Script
I am gonna tell you a story.
It's a story I thought I knew.
Turns out...
it's far more incredible...
than I ever imagined.
It begins in one of the most
remote places on Earth.
There's something in these mountains
that I have a special connection to,
and so do you.
I'm talking about gold.
There's nothing else like it.
A miracle of nature.
Oh, my God, that is heavy.
Since the first civilisations,
it's been a part of us...
helping to build our modern world...
People were making fortunes.
...transforming entire communities...
...and even the way they're powered.
I'm on a journey to discover
how our love of gold began...
This is the true meaning of
the beginning of jewellery
and hip-hop music.
...what we're prepared to do to get it...
So we're going down?
So there you go.
...and why we need it.
That is a lot of gold.
I want to discover
the human story of gold,
how it shapes us and our world.
So, Pascal, why are we out here
in the middle of nowhere?
The area where we're on
is one of the highest
concentration of gold
that we have in Canada,
and probably in the world.
Locals call this
part of Quebec the Val-d'Or,
or Valley of Gold.
And I'm on my way to one
of Canada's biggest mines,
LaRonde.
LaRonde is one of the deepest
and the most challenging mine in Canada.
And how deep does it go down?
This one is 3.2 kilometres.
It's one of the longest
single shaft in the world.
Look, I'm gonna tell you,
I'm a little claustrophobic
so I'm a little nervous about going
three kilometres into the Earth,
but I'm sort of really intrigued
to see how it's done.
Deep in the Canadian wilderness,
LaRonde Mine is one serious operation.
To see how they get the gold out,
I'm going into
the sprawling underground world
that lies far beneath.
It's smaller than I thought.
I thought it was gonna be bigger.
Actually, normally we fit
20 to 25 people in this deck.
-Twenty-five?
-Yes.
-In here?
-Yeah, squeezed.
My guide is Pascal LaRouche.
He's worked at LaRonde for over 17 years.
-So we're going down now.
-We're going down.
Yeah, so we're going down
at the speed of 1,500 feet per minute.
That's almost 30 kilometres an hour.
A little stress you're feeling?
No, it's just the idea
that we're going down
into the... centre of the Earth.
Sometimes it's hard to swallow.
-It's hard to swallow.
-Yeah.
That's not a nice feeling.
We're on our way to the bottom
of a hole in the ground,
which is roughly as deep
as six Empire State buildings
stacked up on top of each other.
I've done some crazy stuff in my life,
but I've never been three kilometres down
into the Earth before.
-So, level 278. Here we go.
-We made it.
Thanks, Mark.
Out at last,
but our journey deep into the Earth
is only just beginning.
To get to the gold,
we have to grab a ride and go even deeper.
So we're going down.
Underground, the mine is connected
by over 30 kilometres of roads,
wide enough to handle huge, great trucks.
-It's getting warmer.
-Yes, it is.
I can actually feel the heat, you know?
After that bumpy ride,
I was hoping to see a bit of gold,
but it looks, well... a bit grey.
Thankfully, we can do
something about that.
Running through the rock is a seam,
rich in zinc and copper
with a bit of silver...
and tiny amounts of gold.
But there's only one way to get at it.
Once the rock, known as ore, is blasted,
it's cut down to size.
So how do they send it to the surface?
There's a conveyor,
brings the ore all the way up to the...
All the way up?
Yeah.
At the surface, the gold
is separated from the ore
through chemical extraction.
It's then heated in a furnace
to over 1,000 degrees Celsius.
Wow, look at how hot that is.
Despite we're maybe 20 feet away,
you can feel the heat.
Yeah.
I tell you what, it's so exciting.
This is so exciting.
It's the first time
I've ever seen gold being poured.
I can see it's... like you say, lava.
Yeah.
-Expensive lava.
-Expensive, yeah.
It's hard to comprehend what I'm seeing.
How did this come
from that grey, old rock?
It's mind-blowing.
Once the gold has cooled,
the bars are given a quick polish.
-Is that for me?
-That's for you.
Oh, my God. That is heavy.
It's 21-kilo.
-Oh, my God.
-Roughly 70% gold in it.
-It's real.
-Yeah, it's real.
And this is worth, like, what, $1 million?
Yeah, it's worth $1 million US.
That is amazing.
Until I saw it with my own eyes,
I never really gave much thought
to where gold comes from,
how it's produced, and who benefits.
So, my wedding ring...
To get this much gold,
would've taken us several tons of rock.
So the thing I'm left wondering is,
what is it about gold
that's got us so hooked?
Some of the gold that the bride wears
has been passed down
through the generations,
bringing both good luck
and financial security.
The moment that Nripin
ties the mangalsutra
around her neck,
they're married.
It's a moment we can
understand and relate to.
And there it is,
at the heart of the occasion, gold.
Nothing else would do, right?
There is no other metal like it.
Its warmth,
its feel,
its unique yellow lustre.
Cultures and faiths across the world
have long revered it as sacred.
Gold, it's pretty powerful stuff,
but there's another kind of power
that gold symbolises.
In the heart of modern-day Ghana
is the cradle of a great kingdom
built on gold.
Preparations are underway
for an important event,
a display of how gold is still very much
at the heart of their culture.
So, this is Kumasi, Ghana,
home of the Ashanti tribe.
My parents, my mom is from Ghana
and part of the Ga tribe,
so there's a very special meaning
for me being here in Ghana.
There's also a very,
very deep gold story here,
and I want to find out more about it.
The Ashanti kingdom emerged
just over 300 years ago.
And, thanks to its vast reserves of gold,
became one of West Africa's
most powerful dynasties.
So today is the very special
Ashanti Akwasidae Festival.
I've been honoured to be asked
to be part of the procession,
and it is an honour.
So I have to wear something
appropriate to meet the king,
and I'm meeting someone
who's going to help me.
-Hello, Theresa.
-How are you?
-Nice to meet you.
Very good. Wow.
-Yeah.
-So you have everything here.
-Wow, this is beautiful.
-Yes.
How long does it take
to make something like this?
So I wear this across my skin?
-Yes.
-Okay.
So this is the jewellery
that I should wear?
-Yes.
-Okay.
So who gets to wear the most gold?
So Otumfuo is the king?
Amanhene?
Okay, so nobody wears
more gold than the king?
-Come... Come down.
-Yes, yes.
Can I take a sword, or no swords?
-They look good, though.
-Yeah.
The Akwasidae Festival
celebrates the lives
and deeds of past rulers
by bringing together
all of the kingdom's tribes.
I've heard it was a big deal,
but this is something else.
There must be thousands here,
and the noise is deafening.
Now we're all assembled,
it's time for the main event.
The arrival of the Asantehene,
King Otumfuo Osei Tutu II.
And his entrance leaves little doubt
as to who the boss is around here.
The Ashanti have an old saying,
that is, "Gold is king,"
and they're not kidding.
In fact, I've never seen
anyone wearing so much gold.
But this isn't some
crude display of wealth.
Each item of gold is laden with meaning.
These gold staffs carried
by the king's spokesmen
represent old Ashanti fables.
Elaborate gold swords
symbolise the courage
and strength of the Ashanti nation,
while the king's solid gold bracelets
signify his personal authority.
The Ashanti believe
their king wields divine power,
and the festival is an opportunity
for his chiefs to show their loyalty
and give their thanks for his dedication
to improving the region's prosperity.
One by one, they come forward
and bow before the king.
It's only a brief moment,
but it feels almost sacred.
And then... well, I'm called.
Now look, I don't get
stage fright, but this...
Well, this was kind of nerve-wracking.
Yes. Hello, hello.
It's rare to be granted
a personal audience with the king,
so to meet the great man
is a genuine honour.
I can't honestly believe that I'm here,
and the king greeted me,
you know, like a prince.
You've got to understand, in Ashanti,
gold isn't just to have gold
and have money.
It represents spiritual,
it represents a deep history,
and it's to be treated with respect.
One thing's for sure,
gold transformed
the Ashanti kingdom and economy.
It's a story that has
played out across the world.
Sierra Nevada, California.
In 1848, in the gravel
of the American River,
a sawmill worker
spotted something incredible.
A glint... of gold.
Within a year, the news
shot right around the world,
triggering the Gold Rush.
An event that was to transform California.
There was a small village
on the coast of California,
it was called Yerba Buena.
It's now known as San Francisco.
It was very different back then.
So let's start at the beginning,
over 170 years ago.
Hundreds of large ships arrive
from across the Americas,
Europe, and China.
Most were abandoned as their crews leave
for the gold fields.
The ships left behind are buried,
creating foundations for a new settlement,
the central hub for gold prospectors.
Houses, churches, stores, and factories
spring up across the bay.
But fires and earthquakes
mean the city is constantly rebuilt.
So barely any physical signs
of the Gold Rush survive...
until a remarkable discovery.
Off the Eastern Coast of the United States
and a mile down on the seabed...
explorers discovered a shipwreck.
TheSS Central America,
which sank in 1857.
The ship was carrying more than
$3 million in gold at the time.
And you have to convert
that to today's dollars,
which is some monster number
in hundreds of millions,
maybe even into the billions.
Nearly 600 gold ingots
were recovered
from the SS Central America,
and they are remarkable.
The value of the gold
on the ship is one thing,
but there's an incalculable,
unquestionable value
that is priceless, and that's history.
In a secret location,
historian and geologist, Fred Holabird,
has hundreds of precious artefacts
recovered from the ship.
From gold to everyday items,
giving us a new insight
into what it was like
to be living through the Gold Rush.
These are well-used work pants.
Today, you kind of call them jeans.
But the thing that stands out the most
is this five-button pattern,
which is so standard on the pants
made by Levi Strauss Company,
today known as Levi's.
This could be the oldest
surviving pair of Levi's.
dating back to the Gold Rush.
The miners needed tough-wearing clothes,
and Levi's sold in their thousands.
Mr Strauss became, what I consider,
the most successful of all
California Gold Rush businessmen
by far.
Mr Strauss made his wealth
from the Gold Rush
without finding a single fleck of gold.
A gold rush isn't just for the gold.
Imagine the lack of supplies.
You're trying to get a shovel,
you're trying to get a gold pan,
you know, we have every type
of merchant you can think of.
People were making, often, fortunes.
Many of the passengers
on board had grown wealthy
through the boom of the Gold Rush.
TheSS Central America
had a fair bit of jewellery
from the passengers.
We've got a remarkable scene here,
a specifically engraved gold watch case
with a miner loaded
with his mining supplies.
And with the help of gold
pumping the equivalent
of $2 billion a year into the region,
the economy of California boomed.
And at the centre of it all
was the rapidly growing
port of San Francisco.
It's incredible to think that
the entire city of San Francisco
came about as a result
of finding a few nuggets of gold
at the bottom of a river.
The Gold Rush transformed California,
they transformed America.
I think it's fair to say
it transformed the world.
It marked a new era.
Prospectors travelled the globe.
Now, gold mining became big business
all over the world.
And then, at the end of the 19th century,
the mother of all gold finds.
It's lovely here, isn't it?
It wasn't always like this, though.
Two billion years ago,
the biggest known meteor strike
in Earth's history
happened right here.
The only visible remnants
of this catastrophic event
are these hills.
The impact shook the planet so violently
that gold was pushed towards the surface.
This is where the story
of South African gold begins.
Fast forward a couple of billion years
and on a site nearby,
prospectors struck gold.
Back then, it was open farmland.
Today, we call it Johannesburg.
Mines sprang up all around.
To turn a profit,
the owners wanted a large
but cheap labour force.
So new regulations came in
that pressurised Black workers
to leave their farms
and go down the mines.
I remember as a kid,
growing up in the '80s,
seeing images of miners from South Africa.
You know, the strikes, apartheid,
and I always wondered
what their lives were actually like.
So now, today,
I'm going to actually find out.
One of the first gold mining companies
in Johannesburg was Crown Mines,
where I'm meeting Frans Baleni.
A miner during the apartheid years,
Frans eventually became General Secretary
of the National Union of Mine Workers.
So, Frans, is this the type of lift
you used to go to work in?
No, no, the one we used was much bigger.
-Bigger. Fifty people in one...
-A deck takes about 50 people.
In one deck,
and there will be three decks,
so that's 150 people at a time.
How deep did you go?
I was going 3.6 kilometres
underground, in seconds.
It takes seconds to get underground.
-Seconds?
-Not minutes, seconds.
-It must have been warm.
-It was very hot.
Sometimes it goes to 50 degrees Celsius.
To my relief,
this mine is just a bit cooler.
-Hi.
-Hi, how are you?
-Hello.
-I'm very good. How are you?
Crown Mines is no longer active,
but in its heyday, it employed thousands,
including Nelson Mandela,
who worked here as a security guard.
Mind your head, low-hanging wall.
That's for me, not for you.
So, Frans, what was
the working conditions like?
Were you looked after?
I mean, we're talking
about the '70s, yeah?
Yeah, the era of apartheid,
we were not really looked after.
We were almost like slaves,
because what they needed
is your labour, nothing else.
What time did you start work?
We used to start at 4:00 am.
-And you worked five days a week?
-We worked six days a week.
You work for 12 hours,
on condition that you finish your job.
If it happens for some delays
because of support system,
you did not finish your job,
it might be more than 12 hours.
-Really?
-Yeah.
And did you have breaks?
No, no, no, no, there's no breaks,
there's no lunch... underground, no, no.
There's no hiding from the fact
that gold mining played a major part
in shaping South African society
during the apartheid years.
But with gold comes power.
And those gold miners, they knew that.
In 1987, over 300,000
Black miners went on strike,
over pay and conditions,
bringing gold production
to a standstill for three weeks.
Frans was one of their leaders.
It shocked the industry
'cause it was the first time
that Black workers
in an organised form can take
so many days on a strike.
And then after the 21-day strike,
did you feel, did you sense a difference?
Could you feel that
apartheid was on its way out?
After the strike, it sent a clear message
to then national party
that the clock is ticking.
Remember the economy
was lying around gold,
so we actually touched the engine room
of the economy
of the apartheid government at that time.
So, gold miners used their
gold power to fight apartheid.
Wow, that's really powerful, eh?
So deep mining for gold
back then doesn't sound much fun.
Nope.
Thirty years after the end of apartheid,
it's a different world.
So, I wonder what mining is like now.
South Deep Mine,
just outside Johannesburg,
is one of the deepest in the world.
But it's what's not underground
that makes this mine so unusual.
This might look like a regular dump truck,
until you realise...
there's no driver.
You see, the really cool thing
about South Deep...
Hello, hi.
...is that unlike a traditional
underground mine,
much of its heavy machinery
is operated remotely.
Three kilometres up,
on the surface.
Hello, I'm Idris.
-I'm Matseleng.
-Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you.
How long have you been a...
Can I call you a miner?
-Are you a miner?
-Yes, I'm a miner.
But... this doesn't look like mining.
This doesn't look like traditional mining.
Have you ever been in traditional mining?
Yes, I did. I was an operator before.
I was driving that big dump trucks.
-Really?
-Yes.
So, now I move
to the control room to operate,
which means I have moved
with the technology.
These consoles look like something
out of a gamers' paradise.
So talk me through
what you're doing exactly.
This is a tele-remote, a rock breaker.
This joystick is controlling the boom,
and then it's also controlling the hammer.
This is like playing computer games,
-right?
-Yeah.
South Deep's owners began the switch
to automated mining back in 2018.
Since then, they have mined more gold,
more safely.
And that's not all.
There are Black South Africans
in key positions,
like the general manager
and head of operations,
and a lot more women.
Mining industry was male-dominant.
-Okay.
-So these days, it's a gender balance.
There are ladies who are miners,
and crew leaders, and then
the production supervisors.
-That's great.
-Yes.
So, do you prefer
being here or down there?
I prefer to be here.
-Of course.
-Yes.
It's fascinating to see
how skills have changed.
But there's something else
gold mines can't do without.
You see, a deep mine like this
needs a lot of energy.
Enough to power a small town.
But South Africa relies
on old coal power stations
that keep breaking down.
Bad for business,
and bad for the environment.
So, South Deep lobbied the government
to allow them to build the country's first
large-scale industrial solar plant.
It provides about a quarter
of the mine's needs,
and it might even be
the trigger for a step change
in the way South Africa uses renewables.
But what do you do
when there's no mains power at all?
Will it ever be possible to run
a whole mine using just renewable energy?
In the heart of Africa...
is one of the continent's
largest gold mines...
Kibali.
Every day, a workforce of over 6,000
mine 20,000 tonnes of ore
from above and below ground.
So you're in the middle of the wilderness,
nothing for hundreds of miles,
and you need to find power.
Not just to charge your phone,
but enough to power a small town.
The answer was lying on their doorstep.
Carving through the forest
is the Kibali River.
Stretching for 1,000 kilometres.
So they decided to harness
the natural power of the river.
They built three small hydroelectric dams.
The cascading water turns the turbines,
which generate electricity.
And this renewable energy
is capable of providing
more than 80% of the mine's power.
But for many of the locals,
that's not the best part.
Now you're talking.
The Kibali mine has literally given power
to the people.
From the comforts of modern life
to production lines.
This infrastructure,
built to power the mine,
will be here long after it's closed.
But already, this gold mine
has transformed
the local economy and the lives
of the people who live here.
In just 11 years, the population of Kibali
has jumped from 50,000
to half a million.
And who knows, maybe one day,
Kibali will become known as
the San Francisco of the DRC.
That is some legacy.
But I'm wondering, when the gold runs out,
what happens to the mine itself?
One thing's for sure,
there's gonna be an awful lot of tidy up.
So, is it possible to turn back the clock?
Well, it might just be.
New Zealand's South Island
has some of the most dramatic
and varied landscapes on Earth.
Mountains,
fjords,
glaciers.
One of its most beautiful spots
is Victoria Forest Park,
the largest conservation park
in New Zealand.
A go-to destination for anyone who wants
to get close to nature.
But there's something else that's special
about this landscape.
Gold.
Reefton Mine, just next to the park,
produced over 17 tonnes of gold
in just nine years.
But on opening this mine,
a commitment was made,
that when it eventually closed,
the mining company would
return the site back to nature.
I'll be heading up the main access road.
As someone who loves fishing
and hiking with the dog
and just loves the environment,
I never really thought
I'd end up working on a mine
on the West Coast.
And I guess my perception was that
it was always a bit of
a damaging industry.
Megan Williams is part of a team
working to reverse any impact
that mining at Reefton has had
on the environment.
When the mine closed in 2016,
their first task was to fill the main pit,
to turn it into a lake.
It's nice, but still looks
like a mine to me.
One of the really cool things
that we've got going on-site at the moment
is the hydro-seeding of the pit walls.
Hydro-seeding is a process used
for rapidly planting large areas
of inaccessible land.
It can be done either from a truck,
or a helicopter.
It's a good day in the office, I'd say.
Oh, yeah, all that water's
nice and blue in there.
-Hanging from the helicopter...
-Here it comes.
...is a monsoon bucket...
which carries everything needed...
to recreate life on the cliff face.
-Climbing left.
-Copy that. Thanks, Matt.
It's really just gardening...
but super-sized.
Since the restoration project began,
the landscape has been
rapidly transformed.
Vast new bodies of fresh water
have been created,
thousands of trees are now growing
and will spread across the site.
Now, it's up to nature to take over.
We're starting to see different bird life.
So native pied stilt, different ducks,
we're hearing frogs,
we're seeing some snails in the water,
and it's really awesome to see.
There you go.
Reminds us we've only got one planet.
But it's not just the environment
the gold industry can have an impact on,
it can also affect... us.
This convoy is on a mission,
to fight what is public enemy number one
for roughly half the world's population.
Malaria.
Now, I know what you're thinking,
"What's that got to do with gold?"
Well, these trucks have driven from
the headquarters of the local gold mine.
Its managers noticed how many
of the mining community
were coming down with malaria.
One of the team's leaders
is Isaac Kwakye-Appiah.
Out of the workforce of 8,000 employees,
every month you had about
6,800 of these employees
and their dependants reporting
to the mine hospital for malaria.
And so the mine decided
to establish a malaria control programme.
Today, the team is in the village
of Adansi Domeabra.
Safety.
It's our first value.
They have one task...
to stop malaria in its tracks.
-Good morning, good morning.
-Good morning.
To combat the mosquitoes,
the strategy is to target
their resting places.
The team covers
every wall with insecticide.
Malaria cases peak
during the rainy season,
and with that just a few weeks away,
the team works fast to treat as many homes
and villages as possible.
But they're not using
any old insect spray.
Back at mine headquarters,
in a specially built lab,
scientists are developing new insecticides
that target local strains of mosquito.
The results have been impressive.
Head of the project is Sam Asiedu.
When the programme started in 2006,
the first two years,
we were expecting about
50% reduction in malaria cases.
But we went way beyond that.
In two years, there was 74%
reduction in malaria cases.
This local initiative,
started and funded by the mine,
has become so successful,
it is now a country-wide programme,
backed by international organisations.
It protects over a million
Ghanaians annually.
The vast majority of them
entirely unconnected
to the gold industry.
I hope to see a world without malaria.
Malaria elimination is possible,
and it's possible within our lifetime.
Who would have thought that one initiative
from a local gold mine...
to tackle a disease that affects
people all over the world
might have the potential
to eradicate it forever?
I feel like I'm starting
to understand how our relationship
with gold is evolving.
How we mine it has changed dramatically...
but what about the way
we actually use gold?
What you may not have realised is that
gold is already saving lives globally.
It may have even saved yours.
Recognise these?
Lateral flow tests
aren't only used for COVID,
they are also used to detect potentially
life-threatening conditions
from malaria to HIV.
And the secret ingredient?
Minute nanoparticles of gold...
which are responsible for producing
that telltale red colour
in a positive test.
And that's only one small part
of gold's high-tech future.
So, here's how it breaks down.
Every year, around 10% of gold demand
is used in tech industries.
Phones and computers
all use gold wires and coatings,
which improve reliability.
Gold's amazing reflectivity
makes it perfect
for space exploration.
And looking into the future,
super-fast quantum computers
are going to need gold
to keep them cool.
And then, around half
is used in jewellery.
So how about the rest?
Where does it all end up?
A stone's throw from
where I grew up is the Square Mile,
London's financial district.
They say the streets are paved with gold,
and that isn't
as far-fetched as it sounds.
How you doing?
Yes, I did just walk straight
into the Bank of England.
The world's second largest
depository of gold bullion.
I've got an appointment
with the bank's chief cashier.
One of the very few people
with access to its vaults...
Sarah John.
-Hi, Sarah.
-Good morning, Idris.
Welcome to the Bank of England.
Thanks for having me.
I'm looking for some gold.
All right, let's go this way.
Now, for obvious reasons,
I can't reveal our route.
What I can reveal is that I followed
Sarah deep underground...
until we reached what is without doubt
the thickest steel door I have ever seen.
Okay, Sarah, don't worry,
I do all my own stunts.
It's a pretty heavy door, isn't it?
Nah, it's all right.
Right, after you.
So, there you go.
The first glimpse
of the Bank of England's gold.
That is a lot of gold.
This is really unreal.
What do you think?
It takes your breath away.
This is like Raiders of the Lost Ark.
About 30% of the world's gold
is held in professional vaults
just like this.
Okay, Sarah, I mean,
how much gold is here?
This is one of nine gold vaults
that we have here at the bank.
And there's about 400,000
gold bars stored here,
and collectively
they're worth about 250 billion,
something like that.
-What?
-I know. It's a lot, isn't it?
So I've got to ask the question,
like, why do we have this here?
How did it turn into...
"Okay, the bank needs
to hold this much gold"?
What was the process like? Take me back.
So, obviously, gold's been used
for quite a number of years
as a form of money.
-Right.
-First of all, gold coins themselves.
But the problem with gold coins
is they're actually quite heavy
to carry around.
-Can't flip it up.
-Exactly.
So what people started to do
was they would take their
gold coins to a goldsmith
and the goldsmith would
issue them with an IOU.
-Okay.
-And over time, people realised
that actually using those
IOUs to pay for goods
and services was actually
easier than actually going
and getting the gold
and lugging it around.
Okay.
And those IOUs eventually developed
into what we now know as banknotes.
That's fascinating, isn't it?
See this, just there?
That's Sarah's signature.
With the words, "I promise
to pay the bearer on demand
the sum of 20."
It's just an IOU.
But these days, the Bank of England plays
an even bigger role.
Holding gold for the world.
So why do countries want
to store their gold here?
Countries have, what are called, reserves,
so basically, savings,
that they can draw on when they need to,
because gold holds its value
very well in a time of crisis.
And it's really easy to
buy and sell here in London
and that supports financial stability.
And there was such a crisis,
not so very long ago.
On the 26th of December 2004,
there was a massive tsunami
in the Indian Ocean.
It devastated communities in Thailand
and Banda Aceh in Indonesia.
But in Aceh, there was something
unusual about the community
that helped it to recover.
You see, most people
didn't have saving accounts.
Instead, they had gold ingots
and jewellery,
which meant they could
quickly use it as collateral...
and start putting
their lives back together.
And it's a bit like that
on the global scale too.
Countries worldwide hold a lot of gold,
so that when disaster strikes,
they have reliable funds
they can fall back on.
Gold is still our safest store of value.
That's the thing about gold.
It's real, you can touch it,
and it holds its value.
I mean...
there's no sticking one in your pocket
and getting out of it, is there?
Your trousers would be down your ankles.
But for me, and I'm pretty sure
I'm not alone here,
the best thing about gold
is being able to wear it.
Gold has always been a favourite
for the world's most famous faces.
And today, we're still finding original
ways of using it to express ourselves.
Abtin Abbasi, or ABS for short,
is part of a new wave in jewellery
that began with hip-hop.
So I'm keen to understand,
like, do they call you ABS the jeweller?
'Cause I've heard that
in rap verses everywhere.
A Jewellers is the brand.
I'm originally Iranian.
I came to UK when I was
around two years old.
Humble beginnings,
and kind of went into what I really
enjoyed doing from a young age.
Hip-hop jewellery.
'Cause you're, like,
basically the jeweller
-that a lot of the rappers are into.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So this piece,
the rope chain, is famous.
Like, I remember being in the '80s
and seeing Run-DMC rocking one of these.
What does this mean to you,
like, this chain?
This is the true meaning
of the beginning of jewellery
in hip-hop music.
Gold rope chains were
the jewellery item of choice
for many hip-hop artists.
And the bigger, the better.
Sure, they were ostentatious,
but that was also kind of the point.
It just looked insane
and made me wanna have jewellery,
have a big chain, have something intricate
and design something for myself.
It was kind of like a symbol
of status kind of thing,
showing power when you
get to a certain point
where you've made a bit of money you just,
-you wanna--
-You wear something that shows
that's what you've reached, like a goal.
These things, even though
they mean a lot to the artist,
but they actually carry
the weight of the money that they--
-100%.
-That, like, you know,
it's not like it's ever gonna depreciate.
100%. It's the same thing.
Buying gold, they're investments.
Now, look, I don't wanna worry you,
but experts say we've already mined 80%
of the world's gold that's accessible.
So where is all the new gold
gonna come from?
Centuries ago, many risked their lives
to explore South America...
in search of El Dorado,
the mythical city of gold.
If only they knew what we do.
Cajamarca is a bit of
a modern-day El Dorado,
lying at the centre of a gold-rich region
in the magnificent Andes Mountains.
It's a mountain range that geologist
Denisse Quispe knows well.
That's thanks to new technology,
which means that today
Denisse is able to find gold
hidden deep inside
the rocks of these mountains.
So while prospectors of old
had to get on their mules
and go panning in search of gold,
today, we don't even
have to touch the rock.
Satellites, a few hundred
miles above the Earth,
take infrared photographs that hold clues
to the rock structure of the mountains
and where the gold might be.
Denisse and her team are travelling deep
into the mountains
to take core samples
from the hotspot highlighted
by the satellite.
Just by zapping the samples with infrared
and visible light,
the gun is able to detect crucial minerals
that strongly point
to the presence of gold.
Gold is still hard to find,
which I guess is why it holds its value.
But by analysing hundreds of locations
identified from space,
Denisse can precisely pinpoint
the most promising sites.
Naturally, that's great news
for the mining company,
but it could also transform the prospects
of the people living in this region.
What has really surprised me
about this story
is how we look to gold
for so many different things.
Meaning...
beauty...
community...
power...
health...
technology...
and of course,
financial security.
They're all part of our relationship
with this beautiful,
seductive metal.
So, the story of gold,
to me, it's really a love story.
Like all romances,
it's had its ups and its downs.
But just like the element itself,
I have a hunch
that our relationship with gold
is going to be around
for a long, long time.
It's a story I thought I knew.
Turns out...
it's far more incredible...
than I ever imagined.
It begins in one of the most
remote places on Earth.
There's something in these mountains
that I have a special connection to,
and so do you.
I'm talking about gold.
There's nothing else like it.
A miracle of nature.
Oh, my God, that is heavy.
Since the first civilisations,
it's been a part of us...
helping to build our modern world...
People were making fortunes.
...transforming entire communities...
...and even the way they're powered.
I'm on a journey to discover
how our love of gold began...
This is the true meaning of
the beginning of jewellery
and hip-hop music.
...what we're prepared to do to get it...
So we're going down?
So there you go.
...and why we need it.
That is a lot of gold.
I want to discover
the human story of gold,
how it shapes us and our world.
So, Pascal, why are we out here
in the middle of nowhere?
The area where we're on
is one of the highest
concentration of gold
that we have in Canada,
and probably in the world.
Locals call this
part of Quebec the Val-d'Or,
or Valley of Gold.
And I'm on my way to one
of Canada's biggest mines,
LaRonde.
LaRonde is one of the deepest
and the most challenging mine in Canada.
And how deep does it go down?
This one is 3.2 kilometres.
It's one of the longest
single shaft in the world.
Look, I'm gonna tell you,
I'm a little claustrophobic
so I'm a little nervous about going
three kilometres into the Earth,
but I'm sort of really intrigued
to see how it's done.
Deep in the Canadian wilderness,
LaRonde Mine is one serious operation.
To see how they get the gold out,
I'm going into
the sprawling underground world
that lies far beneath.
It's smaller than I thought.
I thought it was gonna be bigger.
Actually, normally we fit
20 to 25 people in this deck.
-Twenty-five?
-Yes.
-In here?
-Yeah, squeezed.
My guide is Pascal LaRouche.
He's worked at LaRonde for over 17 years.
-So we're going down now.
-We're going down.
Yeah, so we're going down
at the speed of 1,500 feet per minute.
That's almost 30 kilometres an hour.
A little stress you're feeling?
No, it's just the idea
that we're going down
into the... centre of the Earth.
Sometimes it's hard to swallow.
-It's hard to swallow.
-Yeah.
That's not a nice feeling.
We're on our way to the bottom
of a hole in the ground,
which is roughly as deep
as six Empire State buildings
stacked up on top of each other.
I've done some crazy stuff in my life,
but I've never been three kilometres down
into the Earth before.
-So, level 278. Here we go.
-We made it.
Thanks, Mark.
Out at last,
but our journey deep into the Earth
is only just beginning.
To get to the gold,
we have to grab a ride and go even deeper.
So we're going down.
Underground, the mine is connected
by over 30 kilometres of roads,
wide enough to handle huge, great trucks.
-It's getting warmer.
-Yes, it is.
I can actually feel the heat, you know?
After that bumpy ride,
I was hoping to see a bit of gold,
but it looks, well... a bit grey.
Thankfully, we can do
something about that.
Running through the rock is a seam,
rich in zinc and copper
with a bit of silver...
and tiny amounts of gold.
But there's only one way to get at it.
Once the rock, known as ore, is blasted,
it's cut down to size.
So how do they send it to the surface?
There's a conveyor,
brings the ore all the way up to the...
All the way up?
Yeah.
At the surface, the gold
is separated from the ore
through chemical extraction.
It's then heated in a furnace
to over 1,000 degrees Celsius.
Wow, look at how hot that is.
Despite we're maybe 20 feet away,
you can feel the heat.
Yeah.
I tell you what, it's so exciting.
This is so exciting.
It's the first time
I've ever seen gold being poured.
I can see it's... like you say, lava.
Yeah.
-Expensive lava.
-Expensive, yeah.
It's hard to comprehend what I'm seeing.
How did this come
from that grey, old rock?
It's mind-blowing.
Once the gold has cooled,
the bars are given a quick polish.
-Is that for me?
-That's for you.
Oh, my God. That is heavy.
It's 21-kilo.
-Oh, my God.
-Roughly 70% gold in it.
-It's real.
-Yeah, it's real.
And this is worth, like, what, $1 million?
Yeah, it's worth $1 million US.
That is amazing.
Until I saw it with my own eyes,
I never really gave much thought
to where gold comes from,
how it's produced, and who benefits.
So, my wedding ring...
To get this much gold,
would've taken us several tons of rock.
So the thing I'm left wondering is,
what is it about gold
that's got us so hooked?
Some of the gold that the bride wears
has been passed down
through the generations,
bringing both good luck
and financial security.
The moment that Nripin
ties the mangalsutra
around her neck,
they're married.
It's a moment we can
understand and relate to.
And there it is,
at the heart of the occasion, gold.
Nothing else would do, right?
There is no other metal like it.
Its warmth,
its feel,
its unique yellow lustre.
Cultures and faiths across the world
have long revered it as sacred.
Gold, it's pretty powerful stuff,
but there's another kind of power
that gold symbolises.
In the heart of modern-day Ghana
is the cradle of a great kingdom
built on gold.
Preparations are underway
for an important event,
a display of how gold is still very much
at the heart of their culture.
So, this is Kumasi, Ghana,
home of the Ashanti tribe.
My parents, my mom is from Ghana
and part of the Ga tribe,
so there's a very special meaning
for me being here in Ghana.
There's also a very,
very deep gold story here,
and I want to find out more about it.
The Ashanti kingdom emerged
just over 300 years ago.
And, thanks to its vast reserves of gold,
became one of West Africa's
most powerful dynasties.
So today is the very special
Ashanti Akwasidae Festival.
I've been honoured to be asked
to be part of the procession,
and it is an honour.
So I have to wear something
appropriate to meet the king,
and I'm meeting someone
who's going to help me.
-Hello, Theresa.
-How are you?
-Nice to meet you.
Very good. Wow.
-Yeah.
-So you have everything here.
-Wow, this is beautiful.
-Yes.
How long does it take
to make something like this?
So I wear this across my skin?
-Yes.
-Okay.
So this is the jewellery
that I should wear?
-Yes.
-Okay.
So who gets to wear the most gold?
So Otumfuo is the king?
Amanhene?
Okay, so nobody wears
more gold than the king?
-Come... Come down.
-Yes, yes.
Can I take a sword, or no swords?
-They look good, though.
-Yeah.
The Akwasidae Festival
celebrates the lives
and deeds of past rulers
by bringing together
all of the kingdom's tribes.
I've heard it was a big deal,
but this is something else.
There must be thousands here,
and the noise is deafening.
Now we're all assembled,
it's time for the main event.
The arrival of the Asantehene,
King Otumfuo Osei Tutu II.
And his entrance leaves little doubt
as to who the boss is around here.
The Ashanti have an old saying,
that is, "Gold is king,"
and they're not kidding.
In fact, I've never seen
anyone wearing so much gold.
But this isn't some
crude display of wealth.
Each item of gold is laden with meaning.
These gold staffs carried
by the king's spokesmen
represent old Ashanti fables.
Elaborate gold swords
symbolise the courage
and strength of the Ashanti nation,
while the king's solid gold bracelets
signify his personal authority.
The Ashanti believe
their king wields divine power,
and the festival is an opportunity
for his chiefs to show their loyalty
and give their thanks for his dedication
to improving the region's prosperity.
One by one, they come forward
and bow before the king.
It's only a brief moment,
but it feels almost sacred.
And then... well, I'm called.
Now look, I don't get
stage fright, but this...
Well, this was kind of nerve-wracking.
Yes. Hello, hello.
It's rare to be granted
a personal audience with the king,
so to meet the great man
is a genuine honour.
I can't honestly believe that I'm here,
and the king greeted me,
you know, like a prince.
You've got to understand, in Ashanti,
gold isn't just to have gold
and have money.
It represents spiritual,
it represents a deep history,
and it's to be treated with respect.
One thing's for sure,
gold transformed
the Ashanti kingdom and economy.
It's a story that has
played out across the world.
Sierra Nevada, California.
In 1848, in the gravel
of the American River,
a sawmill worker
spotted something incredible.
A glint... of gold.
Within a year, the news
shot right around the world,
triggering the Gold Rush.
An event that was to transform California.
There was a small village
on the coast of California,
it was called Yerba Buena.
It's now known as San Francisco.
It was very different back then.
So let's start at the beginning,
over 170 years ago.
Hundreds of large ships arrive
from across the Americas,
Europe, and China.
Most were abandoned as their crews leave
for the gold fields.
The ships left behind are buried,
creating foundations for a new settlement,
the central hub for gold prospectors.
Houses, churches, stores, and factories
spring up across the bay.
But fires and earthquakes
mean the city is constantly rebuilt.
So barely any physical signs
of the Gold Rush survive...
until a remarkable discovery.
Off the Eastern Coast of the United States
and a mile down on the seabed...
explorers discovered a shipwreck.
TheSS Central America,
which sank in 1857.
The ship was carrying more than
$3 million in gold at the time.
And you have to convert
that to today's dollars,
which is some monster number
in hundreds of millions,
maybe even into the billions.
Nearly 600 gold ingots
were recovered
from the SS Central America,
and they are remarkable.
The value of the gold
on the ship is one thing,
but there's an incalculable,
unquestionable value
that is priceless, and that's history.
In a secret location,
historian and geologist, Fred Holabird,
has hundreds of precious artefacts
recovered from the ship.
From gold to everyday items,
giving us a new insight
into what it was like
to be living through the Gold Rush.
These are well-used work pants.
Today, you kind of call them jeans.
But the thing that stands out the most
is this five-button pattern,
which is so standard on the pants
made by Levi Strauss Company,
today known as Levi's.
This could be the oldest
surviving pair of Levi's.
dating back to the Gold Rush.
The miners needed tough-wearing clothes,
and Levi's sold in their thousands.
Mr Strauss became, what I consider,
the most successful of all
California Gold Rush businessmen
by far.
Mr Strauss made his wealth
from the Gold Rush
without finding a single fleck of gold.
A gold rush isn't just for the gold.
Imagine the lack of supplies.
You're trying to get a shovel,
you're trying to get a gold pan,
you know, we have every type
of merchant you can think of.
People were making, often, fortunes.
Many of the passengers
on board had grown wealthy
through the boom of the Gold Rush.
TheSS Central America
had a fair bit of jewellery
from the passengers.
We've got a remarkable scene here,
a specifically engraved gold watch case
with a miner loaded
with his mining supplies.
And with the help of gold
pumping the equivalent
of $2 billion a year into the region,
the economy of California boomed.
And at the centre of it all
was the rapidly growing
port of San Francisco.
It's incredible to think that
the entire city of San Francisco
came about as a result
of finding a few nuggets of gold
at the bottom of a river.
The Gold Rush transformed California,
they transformed America.
I think it's fair to say
it transformed the world.
It marked a new era.
Prospectors travelled the globe.
Now, gold mining became big business
all over the world.
And then, at the end of the 19th century,
the mother of all gold finds.
It's lovely here, isn't it?
It wasn't always like this, though.
Two billion years ago,
the biggest known meteor strike
in Earth's history
happened right here.
The only visible remnants
of this catastrophic event
are these hills.
The impact shook the planet so violently
that gold was pushed towards the surface.
This is where the story
of South African gold begins.
Fast forward a couple of billion years
and on a site nearby,
prospectors struck gold.
Back then, it was open farmland.
Today, we call it Johannesburg.
Mines sprang up all around.
To turn a profit,
the owners wanted a large
but cheap labour force.
So new regulations came in
that pressurised Black workers
to leave their farms
and go down the mines.
I remember as a kid,
growing up in the '80s,
seeing images of miners from South Africa.
You know, the strikes, apartheid,
and I always wondered
what their lives were actually like.
So now, today,
I'm going to actually find out.
One of the first gold mining companies
in Johannesburg was Crown Mines,
where I'm meeting Frans Baleni.
A miner during the apartheid years,
Frans eventually became General Secretary
of the National Union of Mine Workers.
So, Frans, is this the type of lift
you used to go to work in?
No, no, the one we used was much bigger.
-Bigger. Fifty people in one...
-A deck takes about 50 people.
In one deck,
and there will be three decks,
so that's 150 people at a time.
How deep did you go?
I was going 3.6 kilometres
underground, in seconds.
It takes seconds to get underground.
-Seconds?
-Not minutes, seconds.
-It must have been warm.
-It was very hot.
Sometimes it goes to 50 degrees Celsius.
To my relief,
this mine is just a bit cooler.
-Hi.
-Hi, how are you?
-Hello.
-I'm very good. How are you?
Crown Mines is no longer active,
but in its heyday, it employed thousands,
including Nelson Mandela,
who worked here as a security guard.
Mind your head, low-hanging wall.
That's for me, not for you.
So, Frans, what was
the working conditions like?
Were you looked after?
I mean, we're talking
about the '70s, yeah?
Yeah, the era of apartheid,
we were not really looked after.
We were almost like slaves,
because what they needed
is your labour, nothing else.
What time did you start work?
We used to start at 4:00 am.
-And you worked five days a week?
-We worked six days a week.
You work for 12 hours,
on condition that you finish your job.
If it happens for some delays
because of support system,
you did not finish your job,
it might be more than 12 hours.
-Really?
-Yeah.
And did you have breaks?
No, no, no, no, there's no breaks,
there's no lunch... underground, no, no.
There's no hiding from the fact
that gold mining played a major part
in shaping South African society
during the apartheid years.
But with gold comes power.
And those gold miners, they knew that.
In 1987, over 300,000
Black miners went on strike,
over pay and conditions,
bringing gold production
to a standstill for three weeks.
Frans was one of their leaders.
It shocked the industry
'cause it was the first time
that Black workers
in an organised form can take
so many days on a strike.
And then after the 21-day strike,
did you feel, did you sense a difference?
Could you feel that
apartheid was on its way out?
After the strike, it sent a clear message
to then national party
that the clock is ticking.
Remember the economy
was lying around gold,
so we actually touched the engine room
of the economy
of the apartheid government at that time.
So, gold miners used their
gold power to fight apartheid.
Wow, that's really powerful, eh?
So deep mining for gold
back then doesn't sound much fun.
Nope.
Thirty years after the end of apartheid,
it's a different world.
So, I wonder what mining is like now.
South Deep Mine,
just outside Johannesburg,
is one of the deepest in the world.
But it's what's not underground
that makes this mine so unusual.
This might look like a regular dump truck,
until you realise...
there's no driver.
You see, the really cool thing
about South Deep...
Hello, hi.
...is that unlike a traditional
underground mine,
much of its heavy machinery
is operated remotely.
Three kilometres up,
on the surface.
Hello, I'm Idris.
-I'm Matseleng.
-Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you.
How long have you been a...
Can I call you a miner?
-Are you a miner?
-Yes, I'm a miner.
But... this doesn't look like mining.
This doesn't look like traditional mining.
Have you ever been in traditional mining?
Yes, I did. I was an operator before.
I was driving that big dump trucks.
-Really?
-Yes.
So, now I move
to the control room to operate,
which means I have moved
with the technology.
These consoles look like something
out of a gamers' paradise.
So talk me through
what you're doing exactly.
This is a tele-remote, a rock breaker.
This joystick is controlling the boom,
and then it's also controlling the hammer.
This is like playing computer games,
-right?
-Yeah.
South Deep's owners began the switch
to automated mining back in 2018.
Since then, they have mined more gold,
more safely.
And that's not all.
There are Black South Africans
in key positions,
like the general manager
and head of operations,
and a lot more women.
Mining industry was male-dominant.
-Okay.
-So these days, it's a gender balance.
There are ladies who are miners,
and crew leaders, and then
the production supervisors.
-That's great.
-Yes.
So, do you prefer
being here or down there?
I prefer to be here.
-Of course.
-Yes.
It's fascinating to see
how skills have changed.
But there's something else
gold mines can't do without.
You see, a deep mine like this
needs a lot of energy.
Enough to power a small town.
But South Africa relies
on old coal power stations
that keep breaking down.
Bad for business,
and bad for the environment.
So, South Deep lobbied the government
to allow them to build the country's first
large-scale industrial solar plant.
It provides about a quarter
of the mine's needs,
and it might even be
the trigger for a step change
in the way South Africa uses renewables.
But what do you do
when there's no mains power at all?
Will it ever be possible to run
a whole mine using just renewable energy?
In the heart of Africa...
is one of the continent's
largest gold mines...
Kibali.
Every day, a workforce of over 6,000
mine 20,000 tonnes of ore
from above and below ground.
So you're in the middle of the wilderness,
nothing for hundreds of miles,
and you need to find power.
Not just to charge your phone,
but enough to power a small town.
The answer was lying on their doorstep.
Carving through the forest
is the Kibali River.
Stretching for 1,000 kilometres.
So they decided to harness
the natural power of the river.
They built three small hydroelectric dams.
The cascading water turns the turbines,
which generate electricity.
And this renewable energy
is capable of providing
more than 80% of the mine's power.
But for many of the locals,
that's not the best part.
Now you're talking.
The Kibali mine has literally given power
to the people.
From the comforts of modern life
to production lines.
This infrastructure,
built to power the mine,
will be here long after it's closed.
But already, this gold mine
has transformed
the local economy and the lives
of the people who live here.
In just 11 years, the population of Kibali
has jumped from 50,000
to half a million.
And who knows, maybe one day,
Kibali will become known as
the San Francisco of the DRC.
That is some legacy.
But I'm wondering, when the gold runs out,
what happens to the mine itself?
One thing's for sure,
there's gonna be an awful lot of tidy up.
So, is it possible to turn back the clock?
Well, it might just be.
New Zealand's South Island
has some of the most dramatic
and varied landscapes on Earth.
Mountains,
fjords,
glaciers.
One of its most beautiful spots
is Victoria Forest Park,
the largest conservation park
in New Zealand.
A go-to destination for anyone who wants
to get close to nature.
But there's something else that's special
about this landscape.
Gold.
Reefton Mine, just next to the park,
produced over 17 tonnes of gold
in just nine years.
But on opening this mine,
a commitment was made,
that when it eventually closed,
the mining company would
return the site back to nature.
I'll be heading up the main access road.
As someone who loves fishing
and hiking with the dog
and just loves the environment,
I never really thought
I'd end up working on a mine
on the West Coast.
And I guess my perception was that
it was always a bit of
a damaging industry.
Megan Williams is part of a team
working to reverse any impact
that mining at Reefton has had
on the environment.
When the mine closed in 2016,
their first task was to fill the main pit,
to turn it into a lake.
It's nice, but still looks
like a mine to me.
One of the really cool things
that we've got going on-site at the moment
is the hydro-seeding of the pit walls.
Hydro-seeding is a process used
for rapidly planting large areas
of inaccessible land.
It can be done either from a truck,
or a helicopter.
It's a good day in the office, I'd say.
Oh, yeah, all that water's
nice and blue in there.
-Hanging from the helicopter...
-Here it comes.
...is a monsoon bucket...
which carries everything needed...
to recreate life on the cliff face.
-Climbing left.
-Copy that. Thanks, Matt.
It's really just gardening...
but super-sized.
Since the restoration project began,
the landscape has been
rapidly transformed.
Vast new bodies of fresh water
have been created,
thousands of trees are now growing
and will spread across the site.
Now, it's up to nature to take over.
We're starting to see different bird life.
So native pied stilt, different ducks,
we're hearing frogs,
we're seeing some snails in the water,
and it's really awesome to see.
There you go.
Reminds us we've only got one planet.
But it's not just the environment
the gold industry can have an impact on,
it can also affect... us.
This convoy is on a mission,
to fight what is public enemy number one
for roughly half the world's population.
Malaria.
Now, I know what you're thinking,
"What's that got to do with gold?"
Well, these trucks have driven from
the headquarters of the local gold mine.
Its managers noticed how many
of the mining community
were coming down with malaria.
One of the team's leaders
is Isaac Kwakye-Appiah.
Out of the workforce of 8,000 employees,
every month you had about
6,800 of these employees
and their dependants reporting
to the mine hospital for malaria.
And so the mine decided
to establish a malaria control programme.
Today, the team is in the village
of Adansi Domeabra.
Safety.
It's our first value.
They have one task...
to stop malaria in its tracks.
-Good morning, good morning.
-Good morning.
To combat the mosquitoes,
the strategy is to target
their resting places.
The team covers
every wall with insecticide.
Malaria cases peak
during the rainy season,
and with that just a few weeks away,
the team works fast to treat as many homes
and villages as possible.
But they're not using
any old insect spray.
Back at mine headquarters,
in a specially built lab,
scientists are developing new insecticides
that target local strains of mosquito.
The results have been impressive.
Head of the project is Sam Asiedu.
When the programme started in 2006,
the first two years,
we were expecting about
50% reduction in malaria cases.
But we went way beyond that.
In two years, there was 74%
reduction in malaria cases.
This local initiative,
started and funded by the mine,
has become so successful,
it is now a country-wide programme,
backed by international organisations.
It protects over a million
Ghanaians annually.
The vast majority of them
entirely unconnected
to the gold industry.
I hope to see a world without malaria.
Malaria elimination is possible,
and it's possible within our lifetime.
Who would have thought that one initiative
from a local gold mine...
to tackle a disease that affects
people all over the world
might have the potential
to eradicate it forever?
I feel like I'm starting
to understand how our relationship
with gold is evolving.
How we mine it has changed dramatically...
but what about the way
we actually use gold?
What you may not have realised is that
gold is already saving lives globally.
It may have even saved yours.
Recognise these?
Lateral flow tests
aren't only used for COVID,
they are also used to detect potentially
life-threatening conditions
from malaria to HIV.
And the secret ingredient?
Minute nanoparticles of gold...
which are responsible for producing
that telltale red colour
in a positive test.
And that's only one small part
of gold's high-tech future.
So, here's how it breaks down.
Every year, around 10% of gold demand
is used in tech industries.
Phones and computers
all use gold wires and coatings,
which improve reliability.
Gold's amazing reflectivity
makes it perfect
for space exploration.
And looking into the future,
super-fast quantum computers
are going to need gold
to keep them cool.
And then, around half
is used in jewellery.
So how about the rest?
Where does it all end up?
A stone's throw from
where I grew up is the Square Mile,
London's financial district.
They say the streets are paved with gold,
and that isn't
as far-fetched as it sounds.
How you doing?
Yes, I did just walk straight
into the Bank of England.
The world's second largest
depository of gold bullion.
I've got an appointment
with the bank's chief cashier.
One of the very few people
with access to its vaults...
Sarah John.
-Hi, Sarah.
-Good morning, Idris.
Welcome to the Bank of England.
Thanks for having me.
I'm looking for some gold.
All right, let's go this way.
Now, for obvious reasons,
I can't reveal our route.
What I can reveal is that I followed
Sarah deep underground...
until we reached what is without doubt
the thickest steel door I have ever seen.
Okay, Sarah, don't worry,
I do all my own stunts.
It's a pretty heavy door, isn't it?
Nah, it's all right.
Right, after you.
So, there you go.
The first glimpse
of the Bank of England's gold.
That is a lot of gold.
This is really unreal.
What do you think?
It takes your breath away.
This is like Raiders of the Lost Ark.
About 30% of the world's gold
is held in professional vaults
just like this.
Okay, Sarah, I mean,
how much gold is here?
This is one of nine gold vaults
that we have here at the bank.
And there's about 400,000
gold bars stored here,
and collectively
they're worth about 250 billion,
something like that.
-What?
-I know. It's a lot, isn't it?
So I've got to ask the question,
like, why do we have this here?
How did it turn into...
"Okay, the bank needs
to hold this much gold"?
What was the process like? Take me back.
So, obviously, gold's been used
for quite a number of years
as a form of money.
-Right.
-First of all, gold coins themselves.
But the problem with gold coins
is they're actually quite heavy
to carry around.
-Can't flip it up.
-Exactly.
So what people started to do
was they would take their
gold coins to a goldsmith
and the goldsmith would
issue them with an IOU.
-Okay.
-And over time, people realised
that actually using those
IOUs to pay for goods
and services was actually
easier than actually going
and getting the gold
and lugging it around.
Okay.
And those IOUs eventually developed
into what we now know as banknotes.
That's fascinating, isn't it?
See this, just there?
That's Sarah's signature.
With the words, "I promise
to pay the bearer on demand
the sum of 20."
It's just an IOU.
But these days, the Bank of England plays
an even bigger role.
Holding gold for the world.
So why do countries want
to store their gold here?
Countries have, what are called, reserves,
so basically, savings,
that they can draw on when they need to,
because gold holds its value
very well in a time of crisis.
And it's really easy to
buy and sell here in London
and that supports financial stability.
And there was such a crisis,
not so very long ago.
On the 26th of December 2004,
there was a massive tsunami
in the Indian Ocean.
It devastated communities in Thailand
and Banda Aceh in Indonesia.
But in Aceh, there was something
unusual about the community
that helped it to recover.
You see, most people
didn't have saving accounts.
Instead, they had gold ingots
and jewellery,
which meant they could
quickly use it as collateral...
and start putting
their lives back together.
And it's a bit like that
on the global scale too.
Countries worldwide hold a lot of gold,
so that when disaster strikes,
they have reliable funds
they can fall back on.
Gold is still our safest store of value.
That's the thing about gold.
It's real, you can touch it,
and it holds its value.
I mean...
there's no sticking one in your pocket
and getting out of it, is there?
Your trousers would be down your ankles.
But for me, and I'm pretty sure
I'm not alone here,
the best thing about gold
is being able to wear it.
Gold has always been a favourite
for the world's most famous faces.
And today, we're still finding original
ways of using it to express ourselves.
Abtin Abbasi, or ABS for short,
is part of a new wave in jewellery
that began with hip-hop.
So I'm keen to understand,
like, do they call you ABS the jeweller?
'Cause I've heard that
in rap verses everywhere.
A Jewellers is the brand.
I'm originally Iranian.
I came to UK when I was
around two years old.
Humble beginnings,
and kind of went into what I really
enjoyed doing from a young age.
Hip-hop jewellery.
'Cause you're, like,
basically the jeweller
-that a lot of the rappers are into.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So this piece,
the rope chain, is famous.
Like, I remember being in the '80s
and seeing Run-DMC rocking one of these.
What does this mean to you,
like, this chain?
This is the true meaning
of the beginning of jewellery
in hip-hop music.
Gold rope chains were
the jewellery item of choice
for many hip-hop artists.
And the bigger, the better.
Sure, they were ostentatious,
but that was also kind of the point.
It just looked insane
and made me wanna have jewellery,
have a big chain, have something intricate
and design something for myself.
It was kind of like a symbol
of status kind of thing,
showing power when you
get to a certain point
where you've made a bit of money you just,
-you wanna--
-You wear something that shows
that's what you've reached, like a goal.
These things, even though
they mean a lot to the artist,
but they actually carry
the weight of the money that they--
-100%.
-That, like, you know,
it's not like it's ever gonna depreciate.
100%. It's the same thing.
Buying gold, they're investments.
Now, look, I don't wanna worry you,
but experts say we've already mined 80%
of the world's gold that's accessible.
So where is all the new gold
gonna come from?
Centuries ago, many risked their lives
to explore South America...
in search of El Dorado,
the mythical city of gold.
If only they knew what we do.
Cajamarca is a bit of
a modern-day El Dorado,
lying at the centre of a gold-rich region
in the magnificent Andes Mountains.
It's a mountain range that geologist
Denisse Quispe knows well.
That's thanks to new technology,
which means that today
Denisse is able to find gold
hidden deep inside
the rocks of these mountains.
So while prospectors of old
had to get on their mules
and go panning in search of gold,
today, we don't even
have to touch the rock.
Satellites, a few hundred
miles above the Earth,
take infrared photographs that hold clues
to the rock structure of the mountains
and where the gold might be.
Denisse and her team are travelling deep
into the mountains
to take core samples
from the hotspot highlighted
by the satellite.
Just by zapping the samples with infrared
and visible light,
the gun is able to detect crucial minerals
that strongly point
to the presence of gold.
Gold is still hard to find,
which I guess is why it holds its value.
But by analysing hundreds of locations
identified from space,
Denisse can precisely pinpoint
the most promising sites.
Naturally, that's great news
for the mining company,
but it could also transform the prospects
of the people living in this region.
What has really surprised me
about this story
is how we look to gold
for so many different things.
Meaning...
beauty...
community...
power...
health...
technology...
and of course,
financial security.
They're all part of our relationship
with this beautiful,
seductive metal.
So, the story of gold,
to me, it's really a love story.
Like all romances,
it's had its ups and its downs.
But just like the element itself,
I have a hunch
that our relationship with gold
is going to be around
for a long, long time.