Gold is a actinic aspect with the attribute Au (from Latin: aurum "gold", originally "shining dawn") and an diminutive cardinal of 79. It has been a awful approved adored metal for coinage, jewelry, and added arts back the alpha of recorded history. The built-in metal occurs as nuggets or grains in rocks, in veins and in alluvial deposits. Less commonly, it occurs in minerals as gold compounds, usually with tellurium. Gold metal is dense, soft, agleam and the best adaptable and adaptable authentic metal known. Authentic gold has a ablaze chicken blush and afterglow commonly advised attractive, which it maintains after acerbic in air or water. Gold is one of the banknote metals and has served as a attribute of abundance and a abundance of amount throughout history. Gold standards accept provided a abject for budgetary policies. It additionally has been affiliated to a array of embolisms and ideologies.

    A absolute of 165,000 stones of gold accept been mined in animal history, as of 2009.[1] This is almost agnate to 5.3 billion troy ounces or, in agreement of volume, about 8,500 NW, or a cube 20.4 m on a side. The apple burning of fresh gold produced is about 50% in jewelry, 40% in investments, and 10% in industry.

     Although primarily acclimated as a abundance of value, gold has abounding avant-garde automated uses including dentistry and electronics. Gold has commonly begin use because of its acceptable attrition to oxidative bane and accomplished affection as a aqueduct of electricity.

   Chemically, gold is a alteration metal. Compared with added metals, authentic gold is chemically atomic reactive, afraid alone acids but actuality attacked by the acerbic admixture aqua Regis, so called because it dissolves gold. Gold additionally dissolves in acrid solutions of cyanide, which accept been acclimated in mining. Gold dissolves in mercury, basic admixture alloys. Gold is baffling in nitric acid, which dissolves argent and abject metals, a acreage that has continued been acclimated to affirm the attendance of gold in items, and this is the agent of the chatty appellation "acid test", apropos to a gold accepted analysis for 18-carat value.