![]() ![]() In 18 carat gold, for example, 18 of the 24 parts are gold and the remaining 6 parts are another metal, such as silver, nickel or copper. ![]() Pure gold (100% gold and nothing else) is known as 24 carat. The term 'carat' is used to describe the purity of gold and is based on a total of 24 parts. To check the gold price today see Īlthough pure gold is rarely used as it is too soft, gold is often mixed (alloyed) with other metals. Institutions and individuals also use gold as a store of wealth. More than half the world's gold is stored by governments and banks. Gold has been used as coins since early times, but very few coins are made from gold today. If gold is scratched the powder will be a gold colour. They can be distinguished from gold by scratching it - the powder (streak) produced will be black. ![]() These include pyrite (FeS 2) and chalcopyrite (CuFeS 2). There are a number of minerals that are commonly mistaken for gold they are often called 'fools gold'. One ounce (31 grams) of gold can be beaten into a see-through thin sheet of nine square metres or drawn out into a wire 80 kilometres long!Ĭhalcopyrite streak. It is then used for lettering on honour rolls in schools, or for putting gold onto picture frames and ornaments. 'Gold leaf', for example, is gold that has been beaten into a sheet less than one tenth of a millimetre thick. This has made gold sought after for a wide range of applications, like jewellery and in electronics. Gold, like most metals, can be hammered into thin sheets (malleable) or drawn out into thin wires (ductile). It is slightly harder than a fingernail but not as hard as a coin or glass. The same volume of milk weighs only one kilogram. If you had enough gold to fill a one litre milk carton, it would weigh 19.3 kilograms. Gold is heavy - it weighs over nineteen times more than water and is almost twice as heavy as lead. A gold nugget of 5 mm in diameter can be expanded through hammering into a gold foil of about 0.5 square meters. ![]()
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