I N N O V AT I O N S • A P R I L - J U N E 2 0 1 4
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F U T U R E T H I N K I N G
Deepwater,
Black Gold Rush
Today’s gold rush is a “black” one, but in California, circa 1848, when gold was
discovered at Sutter’s Mill, on the banks of the South Fork American River, it was the
color of the sun. Word of riches, ripe for the taking, spread like wildfire. Within a year,
a mass pilgrimage of would-be prospectors fueled by million-dollar dreams braved the
journey west to make their fortunes.
But even as the Forty-niners staked their claims, the voracious appetite for gold
quickly outstripped the original miners’ modest means for recovering it. By the 1850s,
mining technology had evolved from “placer” mining with simple pans, to diverting
entire rivers into elaborate sluices, and finally, to surface methods that utilized high-
pressure hydraulic blasting hoses, and “hard-rock” or quartz mining underground.
While these new methods were vastly more efficient than previous ones, at the
Playing Catch-Up When Product Demand
Outpaces Service Capability
