Precious Metals - History, Gold, Occurrence, Placer Gold, Gold Veins, Production And Uses, Silver - Future outlook

KEY TERMS

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Catalyst

—Any agent that accelerates a chemical reaction without entering the reaction or being changed by it.

Electrum

—A natural alloy of gold and silver.

Hydrothermal fluid

—Hot water-rich fluid capable of transporting metals in solution.

Malleable

—the ability of a substance to be pounded into thin sheets or otherwise worked, for example during the making of jewelry.

Placer

—A mineral deposit formed by the concentration of heavy mineral grains such as gold or platinum.

Specific gravity

—The weight of a substance relative to the weight of an equivalent volume of water; for example, basalt weighs 2.9 times as much as water, so basalt has a specific gravity of 2.9.

Troy ounce

—The Troy ounce, derived from the fourteenth-century system of weights used in the French town of Troyes, is still the basic unit of weight used for precious metals.