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Properties of Gold
by Mike Bullivant
Why
is gold so expensive?
Properties of gold
Where to find gold
Fool’s gold
What is a carat?
Further reading and web sites
 Why is gold so expensive?
Gold
is an unusual metal in that it predominantly exists in the Earth’s
crust as the element (so-called ‘native’
gold); that is, it’s not chemically combined with other elements.
Silver and copper are the only other metals naturally found in their elemental
form.
Gold is a relatively
rare element, making up only 0.0000004% of the Earth’s crust (by
mass). You would need at least 250 twenty-ton trucks full of
earth in order to recover just 20 grams (just over half of one troy ounce)
of gold. That’s a cube of gold with measuring less than one-half inch across!
Gold is valuable simply because it’s scarce and difficult to extract.
However, gold is by
no means the scarcest or even the most expensive metal. The current price
of gold (December 2004 prices) is $437 per troy ounce, compared with platinum
at $840, and rhodium at $1,340.
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Properties
of gold
Most metallic artifacts recovered by archaeologists are made of
either gold or silver, which are thought to be the first metals to be
worked by humans. They are both relatively easy to reclaim from the rocks
in which they’re found, and are easy to work. Gold is extremely
unreactive and doesn’t tarnish like most other metals. Consequently,
gold jewelery can survive almost unchanged for thousands of years.
Gold is also extremely
heavy, with a density (the ratio of its mass to its volume) of 19.4 grams per cubic
centimeter. The density of lead, by comparison,
is only 11.4 grams per cubic centimeter. Its heaviness plays a crucial part in many of the
physical methods used to extract gold from its various sources.
Gold is the most malleable
(easily beaten into a thin film) element
there is. Just 1 gram of gold, which would be the size of a grain of rice, can be beaten
into a thin film covering over 10 square feet.
Gold is also extremely
ductile (capable of being
drawn out as a wire under tension without breaking.)
Pure gold is also
a very soft metal. It will scratch easily, and it’s therefore unsuitable
in its pure state for use as coinage or jewelery. For these purposes
it’s usually alloyed with other metals such as silver, copper or
zinc.
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Where
to find gold
Gold
is often found in underground veins of quartz and, less frequently, in
other minerals such as pyrite, granite and mica slate. The veins can be
anything from half an inch to several feet wide. Eighty percent of the gold that’s
produced today is mined from such sources (the rest is ‘alluvial’
gold – see below). Knowing where to mine involves ‘chasing’
the gold-bearing veins on the surface back underground. It’s been
estimated that in the past 500 years, about 98,000 tons of gold have
been mined, but even this amount would only fill a cube about 22 yards wide — less
than a quarter of the length of a football field.
The world’s biggest gold producer is South Africa, where gold mines
are sunk nearly two miles deep into the earth.
There are also large
deposits of gold above the ground. So-called ‘alluvial’
gold is found as small yellow grains and flakes, or even small nuggets,
on the beds of fast-flowing rivers and streams. Natural erosion, flooding,
glacial movement and weathering also play their part in freeing the gold
from mountain rocks. As it’s carried downstream, the gold-bearing
rock is broken up into increasingly smaller pieces, thereby releasing
the gold from the quartz and mineral veins. The released gold is itself
broken up into smaller and smaller fragments. The further it’s carried
downstream, the smaller the gold particles become. By the time it reaches
the sea, any gold is in the form of very small specks or grains.
 You’re
more likely to find gold deposits on the inside of bends in a
river, where the water flows less quickly. As the water slows down, the
heavy gold particles fall through the gravel on the riverbed, and work
their way down through the soil underneath, eventually settling on the
riverbed’s clay bottom. The gold can be separated from the rest
of the riverbed soil and clay by panning (panning involves
scooping up a sample of the sand, gravel and clay on the riverbed and
swirling it with water in a shallow, wok-shaped dish), a process that
relies on the extreme heaviness of gold. Any gold, being so much heavier
than the rest of the minerals in the pan, will settle to the bottom, while
the lighter material is washed out of the pan by the swirling motion.
Any gold in your panned sample will stand out clearly as tiny, yellow
flecks or small grains.
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 Gold
is also often found deposited where a river widens, as well as on the
downstream side of large boulders and rocks. The flow of the water slowing
down allows any gold to fall under its own weight to the riverbed.
To locate gold on a riverbed, you need to take soil samples by digging
down to the darker layers. The darker layer indicates the presence of
heavy deposits like magnetite (iron oxide, Fe304, a black, magnetic iron
ore). The samples are panned in order to discover whether they contain
any viable gold. Because of the flow of the river, the gold is often deposited
in a line along the riverbed. You can take further samples up and downstream
to trace the line that the gold has followed.
Fool’s gold
Iron
pyrites (iron sulfide, FeS2), or 'fool’s gold',
is often mistaken for gold because it’s the same ‘metallic’,
bright-yellow colour. To distinguish between fool’s gold and the
real thing, smash the sample with a hammer. Unlike gold, which will just flatten
under the hammer, iron pyrites is brittle, and will smash into small pieces.
If you heat iron pyrites to a high temperature, it will give off sulfur,
which has a distinctive smell. Gold on the other hand, will just melt
at 1 945 ºF.
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What is
a carat?
Most
naturally occurring gold is impure. It usually contains small but significant
amounts of other metals such as copper, silver, palladium and mercury.
These each give the gold distinctive colors; for example, gold that contains
a significant amount of copper will be tinged red, while gold containing
silver will be much paler than the distinctive and unmistakable bright-yellow
of pure gold.
The purity of gold
is measured in carats. 100% pure gold is defined as 24
carat. 18-carat gold is therefore 18/24, or 75% pure, while 14-carat gold
would be 58% pure. Only certain carat values are recognized: 24, 22,
18, 14 and 9.
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Further
reading and web sites:
A Manual for the Novice Gold Prospector, ISBN 0 9577909
0 2. A book for absolute beginners, it contains all the basic knowledge
you need. It looks at how gold behaves, how to pan, how to use a sluice
and the basics of detecting. It also examines the types and features of
gold workings and what to look for. It explains the jargon of prospecting,
and how to research for places to go, as well as some tips on safety.
Gold Detecting
for Novices, ISBN 0 95779091 0 Aimed at people with little or no
experience, this book explores the different places and types of gold
to look for and why.
Minerals
of Scotland
Introductory guide for the collecting,
panning and mining of gold in Scotland.
The
Aussie Gold Prospector
Australian gold prosepector site, covering the history of gold, finding
gold and practical advice in starting to pan for gold.
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