gold mine

American  

noun

gold mines plural

1. a mine yielding gold.

2. a source of great wealth or profit, or any desirable thing.

3. a copious source or reserve of something required.

   a gold mine of information about antiques.

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gold mine British  

noun

1. a place where gold ore is mined

2. a source of great wealth, profit, etc

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gold mine Idioms  

1. A rich, plentiful source of wealth or some other desirable thing, as in That business proved to be a gold mine, or She's a gold mine of information about the industry. [First half of 1800s]

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• gold-miner
  noun
• gold-mining
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• gold mines
  plural

Etymology

Origin of gold mine

late Middle English word dating back to 1425–75

Example Sentences

About 27 miles to the south of Tonopah, near the town of Goldfield, a new gold mine is set to open in 2028.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 14, 2026

Guney was once a water-rich village fed by 50 springs in Turkey's western Usak province, but since a gold mine opened 20 years ago, they have all dried up.

From Barron's • May 15, 2026

I doubt Mr. Cook saw his own job as anything other than consolidating the gold mine.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 8, 2026

He executed wonderfully on the possibilities of technology and the commercial environment, even so stumbling into a gold mine to trump all gold mines, the iPhone.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 8, 2026

The old stone tunnels changed to dirt with cedar beams, like a gold mine or something.

From "The Battle of the Labyrinth" by Rick Riordan