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Gold/Mining/Energy : Gold and Silver Juniors, Mid-tiers and Producers -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: hank2010 who wrote (32413)	2/9/2007 3:04:03 PM
From: E. Charters	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 78439

No way. It is a trade route, the salt route, and the Arabs went thru there. and there isa lot of gold in that area, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Mali, CAR en.wikipedia.org Mali is amongst the poorest countries in the world, with 65% of its land area desert or semidesert. Economic activity is largely confined to the riverine area irrigated by the Niger River. About 10% of the population is nomadic and some 80% of the labour force is engaged in farming and fishing. Industrial activity is concentrated on processing farm commodities. Pottery is also practised by women whose wares are bought by dealers and are transported to markets where they are sold by traders. The traditional methods used by the potters are an attraction to foreign tourists. Mali is heavily dependent on foreign aid and vulnerable to fluctuations in world prices for cotton, its main export. In 1997, the government continued its implementation of an IMF-recommended structural adjustment program. Several multinational corporations increased gold mining operations in 1996-1998, and the government anticipates that Mali will become a major Sub-Saharan gold exporter in the next few years. Solomon occupied a specific area, and was an east coast trader. His "empire" or putative area of fitional domainb could have gone down into Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and certainly encompassed Ethiopia and Eritrea, and the Saudi Peninsula. He probably trade opium for gold from the many placer miners of the African coast. There was much gold in Spain and he traded in that region. A gold mine in Spain is not out of the question. He could have financed it, and traded the gold for other products of his area, namely cotton, grain, spices and drugs. Solomon is also described as rebuilding major cities elsewhere in Israel, creating the port of Ezion-Geber, and constructing Tadmor in the wilderness as a commercial depot and military outpost. Solomon is additionally described as having amassed a thousand and four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horsemen. Though the location of Solomon's port of Ezion-Geber is known, no remains have ever been found. More archaeological success has been achieved with the major cities Solomon is said to have rebuilt; these all have substantial ancient remains, including impressive six-chambered gates, and ashlar palaces, as well as trough-like structures outside buildings that early archaeologists have identified as the stables for Solomon's horses. However, although early scholars attributed these remains to Solomon, modern re-assessment has caused an increasing majority of archaeologists to date them much later, to the era of the Omrides; in addition the so-called troughs are now thought to have actually been vats for distilling opium. The facts are the Solomon was a regional Jewish King who could not have ruled over a larger Arabic kingdom as far away as Africa. He was very rich however, and this led to fables of a fabulous mine. The Jews were far more likely gold traders and workers not miners. They did however in Egypt preside over many copper mining operations for centuries. You never know. There has to be reason why half of them have gold in their names. :) According to the Bible, during Solomon's reign Israel enjoyed great commercial prosperity, with extensive traffic being carried on by land with Tyre, Egypt, and Arabia, and by sea with Tarshish (Spain), Ophir, and South India. The archaeological remains that are still considered to actually date from the time of Solomon are notable for the fact that Canaanite material culture appears to have continued unabated; there is a distinct lack of magnificent empire, or cultural development - indeed comparing pottery from areas traditionally assigned to Israel with that of the Philistines points to the Philistines having been significantly more sophisticated. The explanation that a number of archaeologists give for these discrepancies is that due to religious prejudice, later writers (i.e. the Biblical authors) suppressed the achievements of the Omrides (whom the Bible describes as being polytheist), and instead pushed them back to a supposed golden age of godly rulers (i.e. monotheist, and Yahweh worshiping). The "King Solomon" of the book's title is of course the Biblical king renowned both for his wisdom and for his wealth. A number of sites have been identified as the location of the mines of Solomon, including the workings at Timna near Eilat, and many "fictional" locations. Haggard knew Africa well, having penetrated deep within the continent as a 19-year-old during the Anglo-Zulu War and the First Boer War, where he had been impressed by South Africa's vast mineral wealth and the ruins of ancient lost civilizations being uncovered such as Great Zimbabwe. His original Allan Quatermain character was based in large part on the real-life adventures of Frederick Courtney Selous, the famous British big game hunter and explorer of Colonial Africa.[1][2] These experiences provided Haggard's background and inspiration for this and many later stories.