It is an interesting fact that India is absorbing a good half of the free gold. India, in regard to its demand for precious metals and stones, has been described as "an abyss from which there is no return." This is an important contributing cause of the shortage of gold in the rest of the world. Looking forward to the future, it seems that increased exploration, which is resulting from the present premium on gold, is likely to bring in new reserves to increase production. Because of lack of important discoveries in recent years, there is pessimism in some quarters as to the possibilities of large increase of production; but, considering the history of gold discoveries, and the amount of ground still to be explored both areally and vertically, this pessimism does not seem to be wholly justified from the geologic standpoint. Curves representing the world's gold production in past years show periods of increasing annual production as new fields are discovered, followed by periods of decreasing production when no new ore bodies are coming in to replace dwindling reserves. It is entirely possible that in recent years the gold-mining industry has been merely in one of these temporary stagnant periods. There are many regions, both in the vicinity of worked-out lodes and in unsettled and poorly explored countries, where gold may still be discovered; there may be far greater resources of this metal still covered up than all those which man has thus far uncovered. A single new deposit or district may make a great difference in the world's production, as suggested by the experience of the past. Regions which are especially attractive for exploration and the discovery of new deposits are in Siberia and South America, which in the opinion of many engineers may eventually rival South Africa. Mexico, with the establishment of a stable government, should also have a greatly increased production. GEOLOGIC FEATURES The principal gold mineral is native or metallic gold. This occurs in nature in small scales, crystals, and irregular masses, and also in microscopic particles mechanically mixed with pyrite and other sulphides. Chemically, gold is very inactive and combines with but few other elements. A small part of the world's supply is obtained from the gold-silver tellurides--calaverite, sylvanite, krennerite, and petzite. Gold deposits are of two general classes--placers, and veins or lodes.