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Basic Facts about Gold

Gold is the king of metals. Its’ metallic chemical symbol is Au, taken from the Latin language, aurum, meaning shining dawn. However, even if gold is yellowish in color, when finely divided it can be colored black, ruby, or purple.

Gold’s value lies in the fact that it is ductile and extremely malleable. For example, one ounce of gold can be pounded into 300 feet. This is why this soft metal is alloyed with other metals, such as copper, silver, or platinum to make it stronger.

In the jewelry industry, gold is alloyed with platinum, nickel or nickel and zinc to create white gold. There is also green gold which is an alloy of gold with silver. Gold when alloyed with copper produces a reddish yellow tinge and is used to make coins and jewelry.

The gold content in an alloy is commonly stated in carats, whereby a carat is 1/24 parts by weight of the total mass.

Here are some other uses of gold:

It is alloyed with steel and other metals for use in computers, communications equipment, spacecraft, and jet aircraft engines, among others.
Because it is an excellent conductor of electricity, and is resistance to oxidation, gold is electroplated on the surfaces of electrical connectors to ensure low-resistance connection.
It is a good reflector of both infrared and visible light and is used as protective coatings on many artificial satellites.

Historians point to Egyptian hieroglyphs from as early as 2600 BC, which mentioned gold in jewelry pieces for their pharaohs.

Today, its superior electrical conductivity and resistance to corrosion as well as other properties, has made gold the 20th century essential industrial metal......

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