I saw liquid gold being casted into a mould for the first time ever…

Today was an interesting day for me. For the first time, i saw real liquid gold at 1300 degrees celsius being poured onto a mould. At 200 ounces, it costs more that $200 000 and i saw it formed into a gold bar right before my eyes.

It was exhilirating to see it being transformed from molten state to solid state, and you can only see that if you go to the Perth Mint.

Not only that, i also:

-Know that i’m worth $1,064,000

-Saw replicas of some of the world’s biggest gold nugget, the “Hand of Faith” and the “Flying Eagle”

-Touched and lifted a real gold bar weighing at 12kg, worth $200,000 (400 ounces)
-Saw how molten gold was poured into a mold to form a gold bar right before us. (200 ounces)

A little detail on The Perth Mint.

” The Perth Mint is Australia’s leading precious metals house, as well as being the nation’s oldest operating mint and its specialist precious metal mint. The Perth Mint opened in June, 1899 as a branch of Britain’s Royal Mint to refine gold being produced by the rushes to Western Australian’s eastern goldfields region and to turn it into British soveriegns and half sovereigns. The Perth Mint continued under British control, until 1970 when it was transferred to the Government of the State of Western Australia.

Under its corporate name, Gold Corporation, the Mint manufactures and markets internationaly most of Australia’s official legal tender precious metals coinage, is Australia’s largest gold refiner, refining about 60% of Australia’s yearly gold production, undertakes gold refining consultancy overseas, manufactures and markets a wide range of semi-fabricated forms of gold and silver for a variety of applications in the jewellery, electronics, electrical and plumbing industries, manufactures precious metal coinage and medallions for other nations and for Australia, exports Australian gold and silver in a variety of forms and is a major bullion dealer and specialist precious metals retailer.

From the commencement of Australia’s precious metal coin programme in april 1987 until the end of june, 1996, the Perth Mint’s coins had consumed more than 111 tonnes of gold, 200 tones of silver and 15 tones of platinum. The Corporation has been in Australia’s top 50 exporters every year since the programme was started. Programme revenue to june, 1996 was more than AUD2 billion, of which 90% was earned outside Australia.

In December 1996, the Perth Mint was appointed, together with the Royal Australian Mint, to produce the commemorative coins for the Sydney 2000 Olympic games.”

So i went there in the morning, because the opening hours for the weekend was from 9am to 1pm. I reached there at 11am and its located somewhere along the popular Hay Street. The building looks old, but well preserved and has that slight victorean look to it. As i entered, there were already numerous displayes of various ornaments, jewelleries and coins, all produced from that same building itself. Coins of various sizes, and shapes, of different weights and time of production. They even have special commerative coins of various occasions, such as the sydney olympics, special dates in history, and even coins that represent the animals of the luna calender. Its really an eye opener and most of them can be bought, but its far too expensive, because almost all of them have a significant amount of gold to it.

So after looking around, I bought a ticket for a guided tour of the place as well as a real life demonstration of how gold is casted into a mold. The guided tours are on an hourly basis, the last one was at 12pm. Seeing that i came after 11am, i was just in time for the last guided tour of the day.

So i looked in awe at thier wonderful displays while waiting for the tour to start.

When it did start, the tour guide was this young chap and then he told us to go outside where there was a statue and started telling us the history of how Australia’s gold rush came into being and some of the prominent people who were involved in the gold rush. After that we went inside the building and went to the prospector’s camp and had a glimps of what was like being a miner at that time. It was an interesting history lesson to say the least. I got know some of the names of the world’s biggest gold nuggets, mainly the Hand of Faith, and the Flying Eagle. Its called Flying Eagle, because it looked like an eagle with outstretched wings. Its really big.

After that we lead us to various rooms, with more exhibits, of different hold nugget sizes, and real gold bars from all over the world and from large corporation. I saw gold bars from Japan, China, Singapore, Mitsubishi corporation and many more all imprinted with thier name, company logos, and the purity of the gold. All these stored in a real gold vault (which is another interesting feature in the building). Then there were also gold from ancient china, india, middle east and also from the ancient roman empire. Its really interesting to see all of those and the room is full of glittery stuff.

Then i came across this weighing machine, where it will weigh you, but doesnt tell your weight, instead, it tells you your worth in gold. Its really funny because im worth $1,064,000 judging from my weight alone. Wow, i felt so good after knowing this. Im a millionaire!! Ive crossed the $1million mark.

And there is this exhibit that lets you lift and hold a real gold bar, weighing 12kg. For the first time in my life, ive ever seen a gold bar so close and in front of me, in all its glory.

But i couldnt take it back home, because its in an enclosed transparent comparment, and you can only put one hand inside, and also during the whole tour, there is a security guard having a close watch on us. Its understandable, considering that the building itself, contains more than hundred of millions worth of gold at any one time.

So after looking at all the gold stuff, we went to this huge room, with a large furnace and some equipment in the front of it, and rows of chairs arranged in a slope for the visitors to sit and witness how gold was being poured to the mold.

The guide did it himself, and told us lots of things like how the furnace here and all the equipment that you see werent high tech stuff and how the technique of making gold has been preseved in all its tradition. He also told us the names of the equipment used and also told us that the very room and walls of it contains gold worth more than thousands of bucks because of the soot and all over the years. Really intriguing.

Sorry there are no pic during the whole process or the exhibits itself, due to security concerns.

When it was about to start, he put on his protective gears and aprons, and then he dimmed the lights and the glowing effect of the furnace was more prominent. It was red hot. Then he opened the furnaced, used a thong, and lifted the culdroun containing the molten gold and poured into the mould. The liquid is bright red in colour and its soo hot and even when im sitting at the back of the rows of sit, i can feel the heat emanating from it. The pouring was done elegantly and within half a minute, you can see it change colour and starts to cool real quickly. Then we overturn the mould, letting the gold bar out and onto a pan. Still in red hot condition, he dropped the entire pan containing the gold bar into a tank filled with water. The water boiled and sizzled furiously and within half minute, he lifted up and there it is. Fresh gold bar, cooled to room temparature ready for use. Its amazing. It gasped in disbelief, for something that i would never have imagined seeing it, happening right in front of me.

After all that, i went to a place where you can mint your own medallion or coin. I did make one, worth 22 dollars for my parents, and it has a special message in it. Its a gold plated coin and i think its THE perfect gift for them.