Our planet Earth is a treasure trove of precious metals and stones. Each option has its unique shine that appeals to different people’s preferences. They also serve valuable functions in many industries, whether it’s for industrial or commercial uses.
While silver and platinum have their respective uses and aesthetic appeal, nothing can beat gold’s timeless and everlasting beauty. People have conducted several explorations and highly coveted this precious metal because of its use in various industries and its conductive and non-tarnishing properties. However, as you educate yourself about this precious metal, you may wonder where manufacturers use gold.
If you want to understand the economic implications of this valuable resource better, this article will enumerate the most popular uses of gold in everyday life.
1. Precious Jewelry
Gold has been a popular material for creating decorative items and high-quality jewelry for centuries. Today, manufacturers use most of the newly mined or recycled gold from their explorations for making jewelry. Gold is a popular precious metal because it’s very flexible, and people can shape them into various forms like wires and sheets.
However, you must remember that pure gold is too soft, so jewelry makers must mix it with other metals like copper, silver, or platinum to make it stronger and more durable. From there, they create the 24-karat gold mixture, a popular option among many young people for their jewelry.
2. Electronics
Electronics are crucial to your daily life because they help you become more efficient and productive. However, most people don’t realize that their mobile phones and other gadgets contain a small amount of gold, which is valuable because of their usefulness in producing electronics.
People conduct gold explorations because this precious metal is an excellent conductor that can handle small currents without rusting, making it ideal for electrical components like connectors and switches. Besides using them in smartphones, you can find gold in other electronic devices like calculators and computers.
3. Dental Solutions
People had used gold in dentistry since 700 BC, when Etruscan “dentists” used gold wires to secure new teeth for their patients. Many dentists favor using gold because of its exceptional performance and pleasing appearance.
All patients deserve to enjoy beautiful smiles because it substantially affects their self-esteem, physical appearance, and overall health. Unfortunately, they can’t ensure that when they have rusty iron teeth. For that reason, experts conduct gold explorations to find gold alloys. Dentists can then use them to create dental fillings, crowns, bridges, and orthodontic appliances because they’re non-allergenic and easy to manipulate.
4. Money
Besides holding significant value in jewelry, traders prefer gold as a medium for currency or exchange. We can trace the history of gold transactions back over 6000 years, with people minting the first gold coins on the orders of King Croesus of Lydia in 560 BC. Gold’s rarity, usefulness, and appeal make it a valuable, durable, portable, and easily divisible substance. Today, governments, individuals, and institutions invest in gold bullion for convenience, especially when our economy faces inflation.
5. Space Vehicles
Gold is a precious material with a lot of potential for future purposes, and we can see an example of its use in aerospace technology. When creating a spacecraft that will travel through space for an extended time without much maintenance or repair, experts must always use highly reliable materials.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) acknowledges this need and uses gold in many ways in every spacecraft they launch. From there, we can realize gold’s versatility and significance as a metal that goes beyond earthly materials.
Final Thoughts
People have coveted gold and conducted many explorations because of this precious metal’s durability, versatility, and value. We can better understand this material’s use by educating ourselves with factual information.
You can discover more about gold exploration when you visit Janet Sheriff’s blog! She’s a creative entrepreneur with extensive experience in strategic planning, management, indigenous affairs, and communications to start-ups, new ventures, and the mining & exploration sectors. Check out more of our articles now!