Gold mining also raised socialist-warmonger ambitions: it was forbidden in the U.S. during WWII, because it was seen as waste of resources. (I would have argued that the war was the waste of resources, not gold mining, but nobody asked my opinion..)
Logically processed, it was just a bullshit excuse. For the gold miner, it's not like a ban would make him mine something else (say a strategic metal like nickelium or copper) instead. His equipment is specifically designed to mine gold due to separating very heavy ore and particles (gold) from light ores and dirt. Thus the only waste of resources comes from having such machines sitting idle.