Now, after reading this entire post you will come to know many unknown and interesting facts about Gold. Always the demand for gold keeps on increases. For Indians, gold is an emotion. We are going to acquire What is Gold? How Gold is made? Why Gold is very valuable? How to find fake gold? How much amount of gold is left on earth? etc. So, read this post entirely. So, let's commence!
What is Gold?
Gold is a chemical element. Its symbol is "Au", which came from the Latin word Aurum. From the periodic table, the atomic number of gold is 79. So, there are 79 protons in the nucleus of the gold atom. Now let's see how gold is made.
How Gold is Made?
This gold element was made lakhs of years before the birth of our solar system. The process of making gold is not easy it requires a lot of energy and temperature. When supernova exploitation or collision of two neutron stars takes place it releases 6000 times the heat of the suns core. With that enormous energy and temperature, lighter elements like hydrogen and helium mixed and formed higher density elements like gold. Now because of that exploitation, all these gold particles are thrown into the universe. In the same way, gold reached our earth and some old entered to very deep like near-earth core and some buried below 10 km of the earth surface. Now the gold that we are extracting is near to the earth surface.
Extraction of Gold:
It is really a complex task to extract gold from the earth. Finding gold reserves is also a very big process. In gold reserves, gold is mixed with rocks and soil and this is called gold ore. Extracting gold from gold ores is a tedious and complex process. Even if we mined 1 metric ton of gold ore we will get 6 grams of gold.
Then you may ask cant we make our own gold. No, it is highly impossible. We have to create the same conditions as a supernova. So, we cant create that conditions. Many experiments took place from ancient times to make our own gold. In 1660, A German alchemist named Henning Brand believed that there is gold in human urine. He stored nearly 5,600 litres of urine of different people and he heated it up. But he found that there is phosphorus in our urine rather than gold.
Why Gold is Precious?
The main reason that gold is very precious because we can get it rarely. The amount of gold extracted from Before Christ to now, the same amount of iron can be extracted within an hour. Now, you can understand how princeless the gold is. For 1000s of years, many people like Romans, Persians and Greeks used gold coins as currency. As gold will not react with many elements and will not rust. Elements like Mercury, Lead, Uranium and Radium are radioactive materials so they will harm our body. But, gold is very safe, there will be no digestion problem even if we eat gold.
Another most special property of gold is it is the most ductile element in the periodic table (A material that can draw into thin wires is called ductility). If you take pure gold and started hitting it, it will only stretch but never breaks. You can make 80km of thin wire from 1 ounce of gold(1 ounce = 28 grams).
As gold is the most ductile element it can easily stretch or changes its form in jewellery. So, other elements like copper, platinum, silver, zinc are also added to gold jewellery to make them hard.
Purity of Gold:
The purity of gold in anything or how much amount of gold is used is a jeweller is measured in Carats. There will be 24 carats, 22 carats, etc. As given in the below chart 24 carats of gold contains 99.9% of pure gold. 22 carats gold will contain 91.6% of pure gold and the remaining per cent are remaining elements like copper, silver, etc. Most of the jewellery we use is 22
carats gold.
From where Gold Come From?
Nearly 75% of the gold that we use come from gold mining (Extracting gold from gold ore) and the remaining 25% of gold will come from recycling like from mobiles and computer and very old jewellery (very little gold is also used in mobiles, computer and some other electronics). More than half of the gold used in the world will come from African gold reserves. There are also a few gold reserves in India like Kolar Gold Fields, Lava Gold Mines, etc. The government closed Kolar Gold Fields (KGF) in 2001.
If you want to know complete Information about KGF (Kolar Gold Fields): click here
Why Gold Price Varies?
Prices of anything will increase if the demand for that product increases. This also works for gold. Mainly, there is a great demand for gold in India. 11% of the complete gold in the world is in India which is nearly equal to 24,000 tonnes. So, India ranks number 1 in the countries which buy more gold. In 1925 the price of 10 gm of gold is ₹18 but now it is nearly ₹47,500. So rates of gold will vary depending on the demand.
Frauds with Fake Gold:
As gold is very precious many frauds will also be done by the name of gold. Fake gold is made with an element called "Iron Pyrate". It is also called "Fools Gold". Chech these measure to detect fake gold:
- Gold will not be rusted.
- The Colour of Gold will not fade.
- Check the colour in the edges under a light.
- Real gold doesn't shine too much.
- Real gold will not get attracted by a magnet.
- Check whether the Hallmark stamp is there or not before purchasing.
Where Gold is Used?
Gold is not only used in jewellery. Gold is also used in microchips and memory card of mobiles and computers. Because gold is a very good conductor of electricity and can make it as thin as possible. A thin gold layer is also present in astronauts helps outer visor because radiation from the sun is very dangerous and as there is no ozone layer in space these harmful light rays will damage astronauts eyes. So, this thin layer of gold will only allow visible light and will reflect the remaining all harmful rays. Inner parts of some satellites are coated with gold. Gold is also used in cancer medicine and dental care.
How much Amount of Gold Leftover on Earth?
According to the estimation of WGC (World Gold Council), till now 1,90,000 tonnes of gold is extracted by mining and there is only 57,000 tonnes of gold is present in all gold reserves. And by 2040 all gold in all gold reserves will be completed.
There is also gold in the middle of the earth above the core but extracting that gold is not profitable with present technology. Another interesting fact is nearly 2,00,00,000 tonnes of gold is dissolved in seawater. NASA discovered an asteroid in our solar system and named it 'Psyche 16' in which there are more than 2000 crores tonnes of gold. NASA is planning to send a spacecraft to that asteroid by 2022.
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