What is Gold ?
Gold is undoubtedly the most glamorous and one of the most useful metal in the world since it is corrosion resistant and very malleable (which means flattenable). and a because it is good conductor of electricity in fact gold is slightly worse at conducting electricity than silver but since it is corrosion resistant it is used in expensive wires and the mother boards. The name Gold comes from the word gelo which means yellow in OLD English and the AU in the periodic table for gold stands for arum which means shinning gold in Latin.
The name Gold originates from the word gelo which means yellow in OLD English and the AU in the periodic table for gold stands for arum which means shinning gold in Latin.
where does the word Gold come from ?
Since the discovery of gold in around 6000 BCE, Gold has always been highly prized and valuable and also very rare and if all of the mined gold in the world was evenly distributed everyone would get only 1 ounce of gold and the percentage of gold in the earths crust is only 0.000 000 4% . And King tuts coffin contained 112 kgs of gold so you can see that gold is rare and highly prized across all time by the roman times you could exchange an ounce of gold for a nice suit of armor so gold all ways is inflating in price. Now gold is used for investments for economic stability and a safe source of money for some people and countries like stock market traders and the United States of America has a safe storage, called Fort Knox for gold which is heavily guarded to protect the tones of gold ,one good example was in ww2 people had gold sovereign which where safe guards from the rising inflation in the war and each gold sovereign was about 8 grams and . Gold was used in highly valuable coins before but then the gold in the coins where worth more than the value of the money its self so todays money is made of alloys of copper silver nickel.
Golds value over time
Before 1914 the olympic Gold medals where solid gold and now the medals only contain 1.34 % of gold.
Gold has allways been highly valued and been in high demand and one ounce of Gold costs 1,781.46 and one kg of Gold costs a staggering 57,275.25-you could buy a new car for one kg of Gold.
Gold
A unique insight into the production of gold and its enviromental impact
By Jamie hilliam and Tom Wallace
Reference 1http://www.elementalmatter.info/element-gold.htm source 1 Google "what is gold'13/3
Reference 2http://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-gold-definition-properties-uses.html source 2 google search ''what is gold''13/3
Reference 3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold source google search ''what is gold''13/3
Reference 4YouTube ''what is gold 14/3https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCvG0Rp9Uxw
Reference 5 YouTube ''what is gold 14/3https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlSuIo1872Q
Reference 6 YouTube ''what is gold 14/3https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6q3s
Reference 7 http://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/element/79/gold google search '' science of gold'' 19/3
Reference 8https://www.webelements.com/gold/physics.html google search '' gold properties '' 20/3/2017
Reference 9http://www.open.edu/openlearn/science-maths-technology/science/chemistry/properties-gold google search '' gold properties '' 20/3/2017
Reference 10http://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/element/79/gold 19/3 google ''gold periodic table''
Reference 11 http://www.open.edu/openlearn/science-maths-technology/science/chemistry/properties-gold google search '' gold properties '' 20/3/2017
Reference 12http://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/element/79/gold google ''gold science and uses''
Reference 13 https://www.reference.com/science/gold-good-conductor-electricity-6432f373afa51cd4# google ''gold as a conductor''16/3
Reference 14 https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602892/the-dark-origins-of-the-gold-in-your-smartphone/ google ''golds effect on environment'' 17/3
Reference 15 https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602892/the-dark-origins-of-the-gold-in-your-smartphone/ google ''golds effect on environment'' 17/3
Reference 16 17/3Google search ''gold and environment' 'http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/the-devastating-costs-of-the-amazon-gold-rush-19365506/
Reference 17 http://amazonaid.org/gold-mining/ google search'' gold-amazon'' 19/3
Refrence 18https://www.theguardian.com/environment/andes-to-the-amazon/2016/may/01/gold-mining-in-peru-forests-razed-millions-lost-virgins-auctioned google
Reference 19
https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2016/04/cracking-down-on-illegal-gold-mining-in-the-amazon/479985/ google search '' gold in the amazon'' 19/3
Refrence 20http://nodirtygold.earthworksaction.org/impacts#.WM79mPmGNPZ google search ''gold and the environment'' 20/3
Reference 21http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/environmental-disaster-gold-industry-180949762/ google search ''gold and the environment'' 20/3
Reference 22https://www.reference.com/science/gold-mining-affect-environment-8066596619595c8e# google search ''http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/20/AR2010092004730.html google search ''gold and the environment'' 20/3
Reference 22 http://www.straterra.co.nz/mining4nz/why-mine-in-nz/everyone-uses-minerals/the-use-of-gold-in-technology/ ''gold in technology''16/3/17
Reference 23http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/gold-rush/videos/gold-in-technology/ ''gold as a conducto in technology16/3/
Reference 24http://www.ilifegeeks.com/3-ways-gold-is-used-in-technology/ google search ''gold in technology'' 17/3
Reference 25 Gold in technology http://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/direct2dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2013/03/20/how-much-gold-is-in-smartphones-and-computers google 17/3 search '' gold in technology
Jamie's Refrences
Gold came from a dying stars about 5 billion years ago ,the star exposed and shot all the gold at an 11265408 kilometres a hour all the way to Earth while it was forming ; after that the molten iron became smaller to the centre of the earth to make the core. This took with it the vast majority of the planet's precious metals such as gold and platinum. In fact, there are enough precious metals in the core of the earth to cover the entire surface of Earth with a four-metre thick layer.
How was gold created ?
Golds effect on the Environment
Golds production
Why Gold is used ?
Gold may seem environmentally friendly to most consumers since what most consumers think of gold being panned but this is very far from the truth since Gold is one of the major conflict resources which has sparked many wars and has a considerable environmental impact due to high demand some of the side affects include mercury poisoning, which poses a serous health risk to the people and the animals around the mines for-most precious metal mining in the amazon and throughout africa where most mines fail to comply with standards due to a shortage on inspectors and once the inspectors come it is often too late since the operation is done and a once beautiful rain forest is now a toxic waste land.
Gold prospectors find an area to mine gold which is usually high in biodiversity and trees and has a stable ecosystem.
The gold prospectors deforest and burn trees which accounts 20 percent of world wide carbon emissions and when the authorities come to stop them it is almost certain that they are too late and many creatures lose the habitats.
The gold diggers bring either diggers for an industrial operation or picks and shovels and the whole environment is transformed from being a beautiful rain forest to being a wasteland in days;suprisingly for the amount of gold in a wedding ring generates 20 tons of waste rock and soil which has to be transported out of the sight by heavy machinery after the sluicing and requires lots of fuel or they put the waste rock to the side of the open pit of the small mine where they dump it. In both scenarios they have a considerable environmental impact.
Now the gold is sluiced which means the rock is put down a shaking conveyor bet with water running to clean the rocks and all the gold which is bonded with other elements called gold ore when not separated sticks to the mat at the bottom of the sluice since gold is heavy and all of the rock slide off the sluice and is either trucked out or dumped around the land of the mine and all the water is from the amazon river and they dump the highly acidic compounds of water and toxic metals from the sluice in to the river which endangers the fish and children who swim in the water or the sluice water is not put any where and over time it seeps in to the river and drinking water.
.Once the gold ore and other metals are found the gold ore is mixed with mercury which chemically bonds with gold so only the gold is left and then they throw the really toxic mercury poisoned water which every year 100 tons of mercury is dumped in to the amazon river which poses a serious health risk to the people who live there and the environment.
The gold is refined and mixed with the very acidic and corrosive cyanide but all is left is the gold nuggets and the rocks and other minerals are dumped and the cyanide seeps into the river and land and all that is left of the once biodiverse land is a massive pit and lots of clay and waste rock every where and tree stumps all for the price of Gold.
Gold is a very influential material in many industries and fields ; When most people think of Golds uses most people picture jewelry since gold is seen on it and it is 78 percent of golds uses. Aside from being very glamourous Gold has many useful properties and uses like its electrical conductivity and because it is corrosion resistant as well as its immunity to magnets ,when most people picture of electricity they think of copper since it is the most used electrical conductor, The reason gold is used in technology is that copper Is not efficient in carrying small amounts of electricity and silver is very fast at carrying electricity but silver corrodes very easily from humidity so corrosion is basically fresh tar on a road for a Olympic runner even though Gold is expensive Gold can be still used in many fields due to Golds malleability.
since of Golds very unique and useful properties Gold has many different uses including : jewelry,investment,safe housing of wealth which some countries and people save gold since of inflation,medical and technology and lots more uses.
Gold can be found in most places around the world ; Gold is usually mined in giant pits which has a huge environmental impact since of destruction of the surrounding environment .
*DISCLAIMERS: The one centimeter might not be a centimeter since of the photo size on wix and my photo editing on my mac and all the numbers are in thousands of ounces mined per year. maps done by Jamie Hilliam copy right
Since of Golds useful and unique properties,Gold is an ideal conductor of electricity since computers have lots of electrical signals sent and milliseconds count, despite the high price Gold is be highly malleable and so there . can be around 4 dollars worth of gold in a modern day laptop; more commonly Gold is plaited with silver to protect it from humidity and to retain the electrical speed and save to money drastically there was was no Gold your laptop would be a lot slower charging and a lot slower at doing things.
*as of april 1 2017
This is the Martha mine in the NZ mining town of waihi which has annoyed the people living near the mines.
Toms Refrences
1. https://gogold.co.nz/InvestGold.php
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold
3. www.rsc.org/periodic-table/element/79/gold
4.education..jlab.org/itselemental/ele079.html