OROGOURMET

THE GOLD AND HIS HISTORY

Gold has been used as a symbol of power, success, royalty…since former days. Gold is pure, valuable, strong, inmortal. Its eternal seduction has fascinated every culture on the earth. Used as an adornment, accessory, ointment, elixir, scent and food, its proprieties turns gold into a real treasure.

Gold is the most ductile and malleable metal that exists. It is little reactive and it is not affected by water, heat, air, neither most of the solvents known. Its high resistance to rust and corrosion has given to gold the word of “noble metal” that shares with silver, cupper and mercury, amongst others. That it is the reason why culture has always coveted gold because of its shine, its value, its purity, and its symbolism in food.

Gold is taken out from the depth of the earth; this precious metal absorbs the energy and vitality of the sun. The singular reaction between gold and human body was already knows in the Ancient Egypt and India, whose inhabitants added this metal to his dishes, as they thought that eating gold will provide them with good luck and will make they feel better. Chinese people considered gold as a medicine that could grant long life or even the immortality.

Beyond all the symbolism and benefits that this precious metal could provide, it is clear that nowadays gold is a rising worth, sure, lasting and desired.

History:

Gold was one of the first metals to be discovered. Man has used it for jewellery and coin making for thousands of years. Currently, gold mining is a highly important industry in many countries in the world.

It is not known exactly when gold was first used, but archaeological studies show that around 4000 BC gold was used for decoration, and have found remains on the coast of the Black Sea.

Throughout history we can see that the search for gold has motivated great explorations and conquests of large territories, even the formation of new countries. This includes major expeditions by the Greeks and Romans, and by the Spanish Conquerors searching for gold in the colonies of California, Australia, Alaska, Canada and South Africa, which were all motivated to a large extent by the search for this scarce and precious metal.

Extracting gold:

Currently China is, far and away, the leading country in gold production in the world, whilst the United States is the second producer, followed by Australia.

Gold is present in nearly all rocks and soils and gold is dissolved in all oceans although in very small proportions.  Normally, gold is only obtained where nature has concentrated it in the earth's crust.

Gold is deposited in the ground in two main forms:
Vein deposits
Alluvial deposits