WEL - COME

TO
THE

WORLD OF GOLD
1

INTRODUCTION
Gold is a metallic element with a chemical symbol Au. The symbol
Au is derived from the Latin name Aurum meaning shining dawn.
This yellow metal is a cause of attraction for women since centuries.
Women are fascinated to a great extent by gold but the men
particularly middle class husbands think that this metal is a pick
pocketer. As soon as the wife utters the word gold the husbands
hand automatically goes to his pocket. Actually men are also
fascinated by gold but not to that extent because the choice of
jewelry for man is limited to rings, chains and sometimes bracelets.

History
Gold is known to the mankind since prehistoric period. The reason for
this might be that Gold is one of the metals that is found in native state
hence no smelting and extraction process is required. It was 2600 B.C.
in which year gold was found in Egypt. The usage was not very common
then. It was mainly for ornaments and the ornaments also were not very
artistic. The glitter and the beautiful yellow colour of gold were the
main attraction.
Gold is also mentioned frequently in the Old Testament. It is also
mentioned in the early chapters of Mathews New Testament with the
gift of Magi. Gold is also described in the Book of Revolution as The
city of New Jerusalem was having streets of pure glittering gold as clear
as crystals. Exploration of gold is also dated back to the time of king
Midas.
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The mali Empire in Africa was also famous for the large amount of gold
in its possession. The ruler of this empire became famous for his Haj
pilgrimage in the year 1324. He was accompanied by a train of 100
camels loaded fully with gold. He distributed so much of gold in
khairat that, it took over a decade for the North African Economy to
recover. The economy was disturbed the rapid inflation initiated by
sudden inflow of such a large quantity of gold. Gold as a sign of wealth
of prestige was made fun of by Thomas more in his treatise Utopia.
On the imaginary or fictitious island named Utopia gold was so
abundant that it was used for making chains for slaves, tableware and
toilet seats when Ambassadors from other countries used to visit Utopia
dressed in beautiful gold clad dresses and jewelry, they were mistaken by
the Utopians as the menial servants.

In the historical times gold was tested by biting. As gold is

soft metal there used be mark of teeth on the surface but this
test was not authentic because a piece of lead painted with
bright yellow colour would also pass this test, because lead is
also a soft metal even softer than gold.
Some of the Alchemists were so madly after gold that their
only aim of life was to produce gold from other substances or
elements such as lead. They were expecting this phenomenon
to happen with a mythical substance carried the philosophers
stone. Unfortunately no alchemist even succeeded in his
attempt but their attempts resulted into todays chemistry.

Properties
Colour glittering yellow,
Hardness in Mohs scale 2.5
M.P. 1064.18 o C
B.P. 2856 o C
It is a soft, ductile, malleable metal
It is the most malleable of all the metal. A single gram of gold can be
beaten into a sheet of 1 sq. m. This sheet becomes so thin that it
appears to be translucent. The light transmitted through this thin sheet
or gold leaf (as it is often called) appears to be greenish blue, because
gold reflects red and yellow colors. It is a good conductor of heat and
electricity.

Chemical Properties
Chemically gold is a trivalent and univalent transition metal. Gold does
not react with most of the chemicals. It is only attacked by chlorine,
fluorine, aquuregia and cyanide. Gold is dissolved in mercury forming
amalgam alloy but does not react with it. Gold is insoluble in nitric acid
but silver and other base metals are soluble in nitric acid. This is the
basis of gold refining technique known as inquartation and parting.
Nitric acid is being used to confirm presence of gold in items since long.
This probably is the origin of colloquial term acid test (he had to pass
the acid test before getting the chairmans post)

Name Gold
Symbol Au (Aurum in Latin)
Electrons per shell - 2,8, 18, 32,18,1
Atomic No. 79
Atomic weight - 196.966 gm/mol.
Density at room temp. 19.3 gm/cc.
Density at B.P. 17.31 gm/cc.
M.P. 1064 o C
B.P. 2856 o C

Uses
Earlier gold was used for specific purposes

such as

Coinage
Jewelry
Medicines
Food decorating

Coinage
In the year 50 B.C. Italy was the first country to introduce gold coins as its currency.
Other countries also followed the same practice and within few years gold coins were
accepted as currency all over the world. Now-a-days gold has fallen out of use in coins
made for general circulation sometimes coins are used as mementos or gifts.

Jewelry
Because of the softness pure gold (24 k) is usually alloyed with base metals
like copper, silver etc. for use in Jewellery. The alloys with lower K (carats) i.e. 22
k. 18 k. 14 k, or l0 k contain higher percentage of base metals. Copper is the most
commonly used base metal imparting a reddish colour to the alloy. 18 carat gold
contains 25% copper which is found in antique Russian jewellery. This is called rose
gold. Similarly different metals which alloyed with gold impart different tinges of
colours which are as follows:
Blue gold iron
Purple gold aluminium
Green gold silver
White gold - palladium or nickel
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Medicines
In medieval times gold was used in medicines. It was believed
that anything that is rare and beautiful is good for human health.
Elemental gold is inert to all chemicals it encounters inside the human
body but some gold salts have anti-inflammatory properties and are used
in treatment of arthritis and other similar conditions. In addition, some
radioisotopes of gold are also useful in medical science.

Food Decoratives
Gold is the most malleable metal. Therefore a very thin gold film
is used to decorate food items Gold flakes were used to decorate drinks
and food stuffs either to display the wealth of the host or in the belief
that something which is rare and beautiful must be beneficial to human
health. There are some expensive cocktails which contain flakes of gold
leaf Water containing gold leaf is termed as gold water and is believed to
be herbal liquor.
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In the recent times gold has found some more uses which are

Soldering
Gold soldering is useful while joining components of gold
jewelry. For best quality jewelry the solder must match with the carat
weight of the components. Gold solder is made in 3 melting point ranges
known as easy medium and hard. An artistic gold smith can fabricate or
assemble the jewelry components by using proper solders.

Dentistry
The chemical inertness of gold is very well utilised in dentistry in
restorative dentistry and the malleability of gold is used in making
crowns and permanent bridges which connect the two adjoining teeth.
Gold can be drawn into thread which is used in embroidery. Gold is also
used in colouring glass known as cranberry glass. Gold is also used in
photography as toner Gold toners are used to increase the stability of the
photograph. Gold toners are used in sepia toned prints. Gold toners
produce red tone.
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Electronics
Gold has maximum no. of free electrons i.e. 5.90 x 10 22 per CC
Gold is highly conductive to electricity and used in wiring of high
energy applications. Silver is even more conductive from gold but gold
has an advantage of being corrosion resistant over silver. Gold plated or
gold connectors are very useful where sliding contacts are necessary in
high tech equipments used in space craft and jet crafts engines.
Colloidal gold (Colloidal sols of gold nano-particles) in water are used in
research applications of medicine, biology and material science.
Gold or alloy of gold with palladium is used for applying as
conductive coating to biological specimens, glass or plastic to view them
under scanning electron microscope. Many honours and prizes of
Olympic etc. are made up of gold. Gold being good reflector of infrared
and visible light, it is used as protective coating on satellites and the
astronauts protective suits helmets. The isotope gold-198 is used in
cancer treatment. Gold is attached by and dissolves in alkaline solution
of sodium or potassium cyanide. This gold cyanide is used as an
electrolyte for commercial gold plating.
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Resources
World resources of gold were estimated at about 90,000 tonnes (gold content). Out of the total
world resources, 15 to 20% are expected to be obtained as by product during extraction of other metals like
copper, lead & zinc etc. South Africa with 40% of the total resources tops the resource tally followed by
China and Russia (4.5% each) and USA (4%).

India
As far as Indian resources are concerned, UNFC system as on 1.4.2005 the total resources of primary
gold are placed at 490.81 tonnes (in terms of metal) Out of these 85.12 tonnes were placed under reserve
category and remaining 405.69 tonnes are placed under the category of remaining resource .
State

Reserves

India

85.12

405.69

490.81

Andhra Pradesh

6.02

25.56

31.58

Bihar

37.60

37.60

Chhattisgarh

2.70

2.70

Jharkhand

0.83

2.29

3.12

Karnataka

78.27

75.14

153.41

Kerala

5.82

5.82

Andhra Pradesh

7.81

7.81

Maharashtra

3.55

3.55

Rajasthan

125.84

125.84

Tamil Nadu

1.00

1.00

124.00

124.00

West Bengal

Remaining
resources

Total

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Silver
World Resources A major part of the world resources of silver is associated with base metals. The total
reserve base of silver is estimated at 570,000 tonnes. Poland holds top position in the resource tally with
25% of the total world resources followed by China (21%) and USA (14%).
As far as Indian resources are concerned as per UNFC system as on 1.4.2005 the total resources
of silver are placed at 10212.62 tonnes, comprising 6058.33 tonnes under resources category 4154.29
tonnes under remaining resources category. The state wise resources are shown in Table below :
State

Reserves

Remaining resources

Total

India

6058.33

4154.25

10212.62

Andhra Pradesh

5.98

1.08

7.06

Jharkhand

5.22

5.22

Karnataka

3.15

2.29

6.07

Maharashtra

0.23

0.23

Meghalaya

19.80

19.80

Orissa

30.83

34.17

65.00

Rajasthan

6003.08

3868.33

9871.41

Sikkim

15.29

41.40

56.69

Tamil Nadu

42.55

42.55

Uttarakhand

138.59

138.59

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Exploration
Gold being high priced and most sought after metal, the exploration
agencies are allocating more funds for its exploration. A number of
agencies are carrying out exploration for gold in many areas GSI,
MECL, HGML, NMDC, DMM (West Bengal) are the agencies which
are exploring for gold in India. GSI is presently engaged in exploration
of gold in 10 states namely A.P., Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand,
Karnataka, Kerala, M.P., Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and U.P. Most
important of which is Bhukia Gold Prospect in Banswara district,
Rajasthan where a total of 47.91 million tonnes of gold ore with average
grade 1.97 gm/tonne of gold is estimated in the first stage.
MECL is working in Junnagiri in Kurnool district of AP and
estimated reserves of about 1.242 million tonnes with average grade of
2.64 gm/tonne of gold. HGML is exploring for gold in its own lease and
getting some encouraging results. DMM, West Bengal is working at
kadampur in Purulia district but with no concrete results as yet.
Silver is also associated in the same area hence no separate
exploration programme for silver is undertaken.
.

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Government Policies
The govt. of India has radically changed the mineral policies in past
few years and the process obviously will continue. Govt. of India has
allowed 100% foreign equity holdings for many industries including
exploration as well as mining. As a result of this, many indigenous
companies and MNCs have been attracted towards the explorations and
mining of minerals like gold, silver, diamond, base metals like copper,
lead & zinc etc. This is hopefully a good sign as far as exploration and
mining of all the minerals including gold.

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Production of Gold
World Production
World mine production of gold in terms of metal content stood at 2253 tonnes in 2006. South Africa
was the leading producer with 275 tonnes (297,340 tonnes) followed by Australia with 247 tonnes (263, 259
tonnes) and USA 251 tonnes (258.256 tonnes). China with 227 tonnes (209, 194 tonnes) was placed at 4 th
place, china reported the all time high production in 2006.
Indian Production - Production of Primary gold in India showed a decreasing trend. Karnataka was
the leading producer with 99% of the total production remaining was contributed by Jharkhand. The
production of primary gold in India is given in the Table below;
State

2004-05

2005-06

2006-07

Quantity

Value

Quantity

Value

Quantity

Value

India

3526

2145

304

2823

2490

2289

Primary

3526

2145

2880

2700

2363

2147

Karnataka

3501

2130

2846

2677

2363

2147

Jharkhand

25

15

34

23

27

25

Secondary

167

123

127

117

Jharkhand

167

123

127

117
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