What
What is Gold?
- Gold is a soft bright, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal with a slightly reddish yellow color when available in mass. But when divided finely it becomes black, purple, or ruby.
- Being one of the most malleable and ductile metals, 28g of gold can be beaten into 300 square feet of it.
- A major share of this soft metal is mined and handed to us as gravels or quartz veins or pyrites deposits.
Uses of Gold
- Metal is mainly used to manufacture jewelry, glass, and different parts of electronic items.
- Gold can be made into thread and used in embroidery.
- A thin layer of this metal is used on the windows of a large building for reflecting the heat of sun rays.
- Gold is also used in medicine, used for the treatment of the tumor.
Properties of Gold
- Being very good conductors of heat and electricity, the metal does not get affected by air and most reagents.
- The element is corrosion-resistant and is present in deposits of alluvium and veins.
- The most common gold compounds include chloroauric acid and auric chloride.
- To provide more strength to the metal, another soft metal is alloyed to it.
Key Facts About Gold
- Metal consumes around 75 % of jewelry across the world.
- The element is abundant on the planet at 0.03g per 1000kg background level.
- The atomic symbol of gold ‘Au’ comes from the Latin word “aurum”.
- A gold layer (thin coating) is done on astronaut helmets to protect them from UV radiation.
- The price of the metal is determined through trading in gold.
Where
Gold can be found all over the world in mines and in waterways. Some of the largest gold mines are in South Africa, the United States, Indonesia, Australia, and Canada.
There are two categories of gold found in the world: primary and secondary. Primary gold is found in rock formations, and when a large amount of it is found, it can become a gold mine. Many times, gold found in rock formations is found alongside other precious minerals such as silver or quartz.
Secondary gold is found in small waterways that run through these rock formations and carry small nuggets or flakes along with them. As the water carries the gold along, it settles along the bottom of the waterway and is covered by dirt, silt, and sand.
The largest gold mine in the world, currently, is in the Witwatersrand basin in South Africa, which has produced a large amount of the world’s gold.
Why Gold
Barring currency, if there could have been any indicator to measure wealth in the world, it would definitely have been Gold.
Gold is undoubtedly a precious metal for which there have been wars also. This natural resource has always fascinated everyone and has managed to retain its importance over centuries.
People who understand metals will know that gold is not a rare metal, but it’s difficult to find and extract the same in large quantities with pre-industrial technology. Gold’s prime characteristics of being corrosion-resistant and easy to work on make it highly desirable for various purposes, such as decoration and other industrial purposes.
The price of Gold is not set by any organization, but it depends upon the cost of producing it (extracting it from the ground and then purifying it) and how people are willing to pay for it. Gold, unlike many other metals, is relatively expensive to produce, thus making the base price fairly high. If a lot of people wish to use gold and are looking to buy it, they will have to compete with each other for it, which will ultimately result in a price rise. If not there is not much demand for gold, the price will be near the actual cost of production. Aluminum is a lot more commonly found in the earth’s crust than gold, thus it is cheaper to produce.