Lihir Gold has announced that gold production has commenced at its Bonikro project in Ivory Coast.

The first gold pour of the operation was completed on the night of October 6th.

Managing director Arthur Hood stated that the launching of the production stage signalled an important milestone for the firm.

"Bonikro’s successful transition to a producing gold mine heralds a new era … we are confident this development represents the beginning of a long and highly productive presence," he remarked.

Gold grades and plant recovery rates have met expectations so far at the site and throughput is expected to run at a capacity of 2.4 million tonnes of oxide ore per year, the company revealed.

Recently Perseus Mining released results from a further 30 exploration holes at the Tengrela gold project in Ivory Coast.

Figures indicated that a large tonnage, medium-grade gold deposit is present at the location.

Exploration company Bezant has announced that a resource estimate has been completed for its Mankayan project in the Philippines.

After a 45,000-metre drilling campaign, analysis conducted by Snowden Mining Industry Consultants has revealed that the site contains 3.8 million ounces of gold.

Bezant stated that the report supports the firm’s belief that the project is a "world-class" gold deposit.

Executive chairman Gerry Nealon remarked: “We believe that Snowden’s inferred resource estimate serves to independently verify the significance of the Mankayan project."

He added that the organisation will now endeavour to progress the project with an ongoing drilling programme.

Meanwhile, in Tanzania – where Bezant also has operations – high-grade gold was recently discovered at the Kigosi project.

Tanzanian Royalty Exploration announced that one hole returned a grade of 20.68 g/t gold across two metres including a section of 30.58 g/t gold across a single metre.

Chairman and chief executive in office James Sinclair said that the findings had "important ramifications" for the company.

The Birmingham Assay Office has launched an initiative aimed at explaining what consumers should look for when buying gold jewellery this Christmas, it has been reported.

It has teamed up with Trading Standards to create a shop window display that will be on show at the city’s Consumer Trading Centre (CTC), according to the Spring Fair website.

Information on consumer rights with regard to gold jewellery will be featured and the importance of hallmarking will be highlighted.

It will also explain the meanings of different marks that can be found on gold items.

An easy-to-read graphics display will be produced in order to outline these issues, the Assay Office stated.

The CTC was set up by the Citizens Advice Bureau along with Trading Standards to provide advice to the residents and merchants of Birmingham. It offers help to members of the public in resolving any disputes and provides information on consumer rights.

Birmingham is home to the Jewellery Quarter, where skilled goldsmiths have practiced their trade for over 200 years.

The significance of a ground-breaking experiment conducted by Ernest Rutherford to modern science has been highlighted.

It comes as the 100th anniversary of Rutherford winning the Nobel Prize for Chemistry approaches.

One of his experiments, which consisted of him firing particles at a sheet of gold foil, had "vast implications" for scientific progress, according to the Nelson Mail.

The fact that the particles were deflected off the golden sheet revealed much about the "architecture of the subatomic world", the paper noted.

Rutherford was born in Nelson in New Zealand and went on to win the 1908 Nobel accolade for his work into the disintegration of the elements and the chemistry of radioactive substances.

Gold has many applications in modern science ranging from its use as a catalyst to tiny amounts being used to deliver drugs into the body.

Recently, a team from Worcester Polytechnic Institute won a grant to use the precious metal to help produce high-tech artificial limbs.

Nanotechnology may provide scientists with a "faster and more efficient means" to develop many applications ranging from electronics to medicine, it has been claimed.

The field is "uniquely promising" as an early detection method for cancer researchers, according to the Gold Nanoparticles blog.

It may enable scientists to diagnose cancer when the earliest cell changes occur, before a physical exam or current imaging tools can detect it.

Many different types of nanomaterials are being utilised by researchers in order to progress the technology, including nanotubes, nanoshells, nanopores and cantilevers, which are shaped like an anchor.

Gold is particularly useful in producing nanoshells, tiny beads that are coated with the precious metal and can be linked to cancer-fighting antibodies.

A team from Arizona State Univesrity and the Los Almos laboratory recently created gold ‘nanojewels’ made up of multiple nanoparticles.

They are mostly spherical but are flat on the bottom and could potentially be used in a range of products including medicine and computer engineering.

The potential for gold nanorods to become a significant tool in the fight against cancer has been highlighted in a scientific journal.

Research that combined the gold nanostructures with chemotherapy drugs has provided "impressive" results, according to the piece published in the Advanced Materials journal and reported by website Ars Techinca.

The small size of gold nanoparticles allows them to pass into cells and heating them up with thermal energy can help to destroy cancer cells, leaving healthy cells unharmed.

In addition, the use of gold nanorods to deliver the drugs results in one-third of the dosage having the same efficiency as a standard course of chemotherapy, the journal noted.

Rod-shaped gold nanoparticles are particularly useful for this form of cancer treatment as their shape affects the way that heat is conducted.

A German-American team of scientists recently developed a new way to produce gold nanorods without the use of cytotoxic materials.