History of the Gold

History of Gold

It is a special metal. One of its features is its scarcity. All over the world annually produces 3.5 million Tn lead ore, 8 million of Tn Tn 500 million copper and iron ore, but only 1.4 million of Tn gold.

Gold also is distinguished by its flexibility. For example 10 grams of gold can be made into very thin blade, translucent 3.5 m2, or a wire as thin as a cobweb and about 25 km long.

The chemical symbol for gold is "Au" from "Platus Aurum". The specific gravity is 19.3. It melts at 1063 ° C. A commonly used measure of weight in gold is the troy ounce (one troy ounce equals 31.1035 grams).

In its natural state can be found both in solid form located in rocky deposits in the form of sand or nugget in the beds of rivers, among the sand or gravel.This the type of gold in California that the explorers were trying to pelt with their primitive screens.

Currently gold is extracted with modern mining techniques.

To get 10 grams of gold, you need to extract about one ton of rock to a depth of 3000 meters but deep.

Grinding and adding water gets a thin slurry which is extracted raw gold by a chemical process (sodium cyanide).

Before the gold reaches a purity of 99. 99%, which is necessary for technical applications, have to go through casting and electrochemical processes.

This means a considerable expense and therefore the amount of gold extracted the date is so small (approximately 90,000 Tn) that could fit into a cube only 18 meters away.