The Rand mines produced 40 percent of world gold by 1914

Evidence

By the outbreak of World War I, the Rand mines were producing fully 40 percent of the world’s gold output. Heterogeneity and perhaps with it heterodoxy were the city’s mark. The glitter of gold reeled in wealth seekers from across the country and all across Europe. — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1452

Categorization

• SHARE: A strikingly specific data point (40% of world gold from one mining complex) worth sending to a friend interested in resource economics or colonial history.