Copper is used pretty much universally in electronics because of its excellent electrical conductivity, from wiring to the tracks on circuit boards.
Investing in Silver
An ounce of silver can be purchased at $21 (Spring 2023). In contrast, an ounce of gold can be purchased at $1,900. There's a high price difference between silver and gold, which makes it a bit easier to choose silver as the main alternative to gold.
Platinum is generally valued higher than gold. This is because platinum is rarer than gold, has a higher density and is purer. Platinum rings require more platinum than gold rings require gold, which can increase the overall cost.
If translated into numbers, platinum—for all of its known deposits—is considerably more rare than gold and is the rarest metal of all. And it is, truly, a gift from the heavens.
Rhodium. Depending on the fluctuations of the world market, rhodium is often the most expensive metal in the world.
About 60% of Australia's gold resources occur in Western Australia, with the remainder in all other States and the Northern Territory. Virtually all resources occur in primary deposits, many of which have undergone some degree of weathering.
Pinchbeck is a form of brass, an alloy of copper and zinc mixed in proportions so that it closely resembles gold in appearance. It was invented in the early 18th century by Christopher Pinchbeck (died 1732), a London clock- and watch-maker.
Scientists believe that there is still eight times more gold in and under the oceans than has ever been mined close to the planet's surface. Like the gold that is probably floating in the Earth's molten core, most of this supply of the precious metal is inaccessible or simply too expensive to mine.
Adding or removing protons from a nucleus are types of nuclear reactions. As such, no series of chemical reactions can ever create gold. Chemical reactions change the number and shape of the electrons in an atom but leave the nucleus of the atom unchanged.
About 244,000 metric tons of gold has been discovered to date (187,000 metric tons historically produced plus current underground reserves of 57,000 metric tons). Most of that gold has come from just three countries: China, Australia, and South Africa.
A 2009 NASA mission—in which a rocket slammed into the moon and a second spacecraft studied the blast—revealed that the lunar surface contains an array of compounds, including gold, silver, and mercury, according to PBS.
Oxidation-proof copper could replace gold in chips • The Register.
1. RHODIUM: TOP MOST VALUABLE METAL. Rhodium is the most valuable metal and exists within the platinum group of metals. It is used in jewelry for a final finish on white gold jewelry.
1. Gold is soluble in mercury, at 200 C., to the extent of about 0.06 per cent; this solubility increases to about 0.25 per cent at 1000 C., and probably decreases to zero at the freezing point of mercury. 2.
Gold is taxable, and taxation is based on the total value in dollars rather than weight. You are liable to taxation only when you make a profit from selling gold. Typically, the more profit you make the more tax you will have to pay.
Leading markets for gold exports from Australia FY 2022
China was the leading export destination for Australian gold in terms of value.
As part of Australia's official reserve assets, the Reserve Bank holds an amount of gold.
The rarest stable metal is tantalum. The rarest metal on earth is actually francium, but because this unstable element has a half life of a mere 22 minutes, it has no practical use.
1. Rhodium. Rhodium is a rare, silvery-white metal that belongs to the platinum group of elements.
Experts posit that platinum is about 15–20 times scarcer than gold and approximately 60–100 times scarcer than silver, on the basis of annual mine production. Since 2014, platinum prices have fallen lower than gold. Approximately 75% of global platinum is mined in South Africa.
The most common mineral mistaken for gold is pyrite. Chalcopyrite may also appear gold-like, and weathered mica can mimic gold as well. Compared to actual gold, these minerals will flake, powder, or crumble when poked with a metal point, whereas gold will gouge or indent like soft lead.
Electronics aren't made entirely of gold. Rather, the precious and expensive metal is used for specific components such as connectors, switch contacts, relay contacts and wires.
What to do: Hold the magnet up to the gold. If it's real gold it will not stick to the magnet. (Fun fact: Real gold is not magnetic.) Fake gold, on the other hand, will stick to the magnet.
There is an asteroid with a metal-composition that lurks around between Mars and Jupiter while orbiting the Sun and it is made up mainly of gold. Named 'Psyche 16', it was first discovered in 1852 by Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis and he named the asteroid after the Greek Goddess of Soul 'Psyche'.
Eventually, scientists calculated that the Sun contains almost 2.5 trillion tons of gold, enough to fill Earth's oceans and more. Still, that's just eight atoms of gold for every trillion atoms of hydrogen — a tiny amount when compared to the mass of the Sun.