***some indigenous people, my own an example, have not proffered any interest in the said metal. But they had no metal technolgy. This is despite there being gold in them thar hills found by the europeans who subsequently build their cities and lived a life of comfort and privelige.***

Greetings Judah, check out Wikipedia:

Gold has been known and highly valued since prehistoric times. It may have been the first metal used by humans and was valued for ornamentation and rituals. Egyptian hieroglyphs from as early as 2600 BC describe gold, which king Tushratta of the Mitanni claimed was "more plentiful than dirt" in Egypt. Egypt and especially Nubia had the resources to make them major gold-producing areas for much of history. The earliest known map is known as the Turin papyrus and shows the plan of a gold mine in Nubia together with indications of the local geology.