Facts About Gold: Why It’s Such An Amazing Mineral
Gold is a remarkable mineral: it can be dented or scratched with a knife blade, or flattened when pounded with a hammer.
It has a low melting point and is malleable and more ductile than any other metal.
It can be hammered into sheets as thin as 1/250-thousandths of an inch, and has be drawn without breaking into a 35-mile wire.
It is heavy: 19.3 in specific gravity.
It is soft: 2.5 on the hardness scale.
It occurs almost everywhere in the world!
Because of its beauty and resistance to chemicals, it has long been prized for use in jewelry, coins and dentistry.
Because it is eternal and not affected by time, air, water, and other corrosives, the surface of some NASA satellite components are coated with gold to protect them from the heat and corrosion of outer space.
Various industries in our country alone use 8,000,000 ounces of gold every year!
Traces of this abundant mineral have been found in deposits of copper, lead, zinc, coal, and clay.
Even in the sea, scientists have found there are six parts gold for every trillion parts of salt water though no one has found an economical way of retrieving it.
Throughout all of history, gold has been considered a “precious” mineral and is probably the first metal to be mined . . . because it can be obtained in its native form with primitive tools.
The Bible refers to “gold” at least 25 times!
Archeologists have uncovered hoards of gold in the ancient ruins of Greece, Egypt, Mexico and Peru; and Egyptian monuments show that gold has been panned, melted and pounded to fit mankind’s wants and needs as far back as 2900 B.C.
In North America, placer gold occurs in streams and rivers from the Yukon, through the United States and down through Mexico.
It has been discovered in almost every state in the Union, from the East Coast to the West Coast . . . so beware! You can catch gold fever in the desert, in the mountains, or at an ocean beach.
It is lovely and still obtainable.
There is no other mineral so bright, so lustrous, or so astonishingly heavy.
No other metal has captured the hearts of man as has gold!
