Gold

Gold is a precious rare yellow metal. It is a very ductile and malleable metal. Gold is soft to touch, shiny and dense. It's atomic number is 79, and chemical element symbol is Au. Gold is found in natural environments, though commonly found in quartz veins, and some other mineral deposits. As gold is such a precious metal, has a number of attributes, it has and still is a very valued metal. It's known to been used to announce power and wealth.

Because of the quality of gold it can be effortlessly chiseled, hammered, shaped, carved and melted. Gold can be mixed with other natural minerals like platinum and silver as it is so soft. This would then make the gold only stronger. Therefore one of the most older uses for gold was dental fillings and dentures Gold was once used extensively as dentures and dental fillings because of it's soft appearance and flexibility to shape or mold. For comparison, gold is just harder than a fingernail but not as solid as glass or a coin. Gold can be found in placer mines and load deposits and is naturally pure.

Like a great number other metals, gold may be flattened to make sheets or stretched out into thin wires. So much that gold is so sought after for copious uses like jewellery and also in electronics.

How is Gold Mined?
There are four categories in which to mine gold. Including hard rock mining, placer mining, processing gold ore and byproduct mining. All four methods uses its own particular techniques to extract the gold from it's surrounding materials.

Hard rock mining is the using of underground tunnels or open pit to fetch the gold from the rock . This method of gold mining has accomplished the majority of the worlds gold supply.

Byproduct mining is similar to hard rock mining. Underground tunnels are used, however, the gold is a secondary find. Mostly this technique is used to collect other minerals like copper, gravel and sand, but extreme amounts of gold does exist. So this is a very valuable gain.

Placer mining uses metal detectors, cradling, dredging and panning. Water and gravity separate the gold from other materials in the surround. Most amateur gold hunters use this method of mining.

Finally the method of processing gold ore . This method is widely frowned on now days, as the revenue of Gold is often low and of the environmental impact. The Gold ore is finely crushed rock. If with int eh earths crust, a chemical process is required. The chemical used to do this is Cyanide, hence damage to the environment.

How is Gold Processed?
After the gold rocks are extracted from the ground, they are put in big machines called crushers.  The rocks are transformed into a fine powder. Water is mixed with the powder until it is a pulp consistency. This pulp is put through a chain of leaching tanks, which uses a chemical solvent to dissolve the gold. The most common solvent used by the companies is cyanide, as mentioned prior. Small quantities of grains are added of carbon into the pulp. The gold which was dissolved attaches to the carbon. Finally the carbon goes into a hot caustic solution which will separate the carbon and the glittering metal.

The next process involves the yellow gold electro-winning. This process removes all chemicals from the precious metal. The final procedure is called "smelting". This is where the gold is subjected to to a furnace of approximately 1.149 deg C. Once the gold becomes a liquid, it's poured into solid bars, known as "dores". Thees bars are of low quality, so undergo more procedures to refineries around the world.

What is gold used for?
Gold is highly resistant to corrosion and is very chemically stable. Therefore gold has an enormous variety of uses. As it's softness and most purest form is 24k, it is joined with other metals creating beautiful jewellery. Lower caratage of gold is usually, 22k, 18k down to 9k. Other known items gold is used for is Olympic medals, wedding rings, bullions, coins, Oscars, money, crucifixes and priceful art.

For electronics gold is used as connectors electronics cables, like thin layer coating electrical connectors ensuring a good connection. Cables such as USB,video and audio benefit from using the gold rather than other connectors.

Mostly all high tech products today have a make up of gold content. Ranging from mobile phones to computers. Gold also is a reflectant to electromagnetic radiation, so a much wiser choice when using pricey equipment.
Ornaments and jewellery have been made from gold for thousands of years. This natural beauty has been one of the first metals humans have ever worked with.