基隆山黃金三國志

The Three Kingdoms of Gold in Keelung Shan

黃金傳奇始發於西元（以下同）1890年的清朝、蓬勃於日本統治時期、萎縮於1987年的中華民國，橫跨3個政府。大部分的金銀財富為日人所攫取。臺灣北部3個火成岩群中，只有基隆山產金聞名，其餘微不足道；臺灣其他地方金鑛也都無足輕重。基隆山產金區於日本統治初期劃定金瓜石與瑞芳2鑛，後則加入牡丹坑金鑛，形成黃金3國鼎立。但以金瓜石金鑛產量最大、最富，超越日人最看好的瑞芳金鑛而為遠東第一大金鑛。光復後，金瓜石金鑛成為國營，在臺灣金屬鑛業股份有限公司政策性結束後，因留有大量認為無開採價值尚未開發的金礦及周邊可能發現新礦體，吸引了全世界國際大金礦公司來臺，惜因承受礦區之臺灣糖業股份有限公司有國營企業之限制而錯失合作開發機會，展望未來金瓜石金礦仍有機會可開啟第二春。

The gold rush began in 1890 because of the discovery of placer gold in Keelung Riverbed and shrank in 1987. During which time, the regime has changed from Qing Dynasty, Japanese period to the Republic of China. The three kingdoms of gold in Keelung Shan namely Jinquashi Gold Mine, Ruifang Gold Mine and Mudankung Gold Mine were solely established at the beginning of Japanese period. Jinquashi Gold Mine unexpectedly became the largest gold mine in the far eastern region during that period of time. The essential gold wealth of the three gold mines was majorly grabbed by Japanese. There were some gold mines discovered in other igneous rock areas, but never have been as important as Jinquashi area. In 1987, the state-owned Jinquashi Gold Mine was asked to close down due to its heavy financial burden and the drastic fall of world copper price. With miners' pleading for self-managing the mine by reasoning that there was still plenty unmined gold and the requests for cooperation and investment from famous international gold companies, Ministry of Economic Affairs reviewed the mine's gold potential and transferred the mining right to Taiwan Sugar Corporation. It ended up with Jinquashi Gold Mine idled in spite of the drastic fluctuation of gold price from US254 per ounce in 1990 to US1,889 per ounce in 2008. A great potential of finding a new world-class deposit is optimistically expected.