Why are gold deposits found at all? Gold is famously
unreactive, and there seems to be little reason why gold should be
concentrated, rather than uniformly scattered throughout the
Earth’s crust. Now, an international group of geochemists have
discovered why gold is concentrated alongside arsenic, explaining
the formation of most gold deposits. This may also explain why many
gold miners and others have been at risk from arsenic poisoning.
This work is presented at the Goldschmidt conference, after recent
publication.
