According to the book Heavenly Creations written by Song in Ming Dynasty, there are about 100 gold-producing areas in China, so it is difficult to list them one by one. Among the rocks, the big one is called horseshoe gold, the middle one is called olive gold and hip gold, and the small one is called melon seed gold. The big ones produced in water and sand are called gold nuggets, and the small ones are called Branmackin or Brandin. Those who dig wells on the flat land are called Miansha Gold, and those who dig wells on the flat land are called Bucket Gold. But they all have to be smelted after elutriation to become all gold. The book also says that most of the gold is produced in the southwest. Gold miners dug a mine more than 10 feet deep, and when they saw the associated stone (gold-related ore), they could find gold. Placer gold in the river is mostly produced in Jinsha River (called Lishui in ancient times) in Yunnan Province. This river originates from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, bypasses Lijiang area and flows to Beisheng area, winding for more than 500 miles, with several gold-producing areas. In addition, placer gold can also be found in river sand in Tongchuan in northern Sichuan and Yuanling and Xupu counties in Hunan Province. In thousands of elutriations, I occasionally get a gold nugget, the so-called myrtle, and the rest are just wheat bran McKinley. When gold is smelted, it is pale yellow at first and turns red after smelting.

According to textual research, the discovery and utilization of ancient gold in China probably belonged to the same period as copper. Because gold is not easy to oxidize, it can exist in the original natural state in nature; Because of its dazzling brilliance and heavy and solid touch, it is easy to distinguish from rocks and sand, so once exposed to cliffs and sandy beaches, it is easy to be collected by people. Ancient people discovered gold long ago according to these characteristics.

According to the Historical Records of Sima Qian in the Western Han Dynasty, "Yu (Shun name) is the currency of Xia (Yu name), and gold is the third product, or yellow, or white, or red", it is known that people already knew how to use gold, silver and copper before 1800 BC.