The Gold Mining Stocks Investment

The origins of gold mining are lost in the mists of history. How did people who could barely raise enough food to live on (assuming that it did not start while we were primitive hunters and gatherers), figure out that those gleaming streaks in certain outcroppings of rock could be separated from the rock and used to make beautiful things? For more information: http://www.goldalert.com/goldenstarresources.php