Gold is a shiny, yellow metal , probably one of the most expensive on Earth. It was one of the first metals discovered and people have been using gold for jewellery and coins for thousands of years.

Gold’s chemical symbol is Au (Latin for “aurum”) .It is a soft metal that can be pressed into many different shapes. One ounce of gold (about 30 grams) can be made into a thin wire that is 70 km long.

Gold does not rust when it gets into contact with water or air. Radios and TV sets have parts made of gold because electricity can pass through it well. Dentists use gold to make crowns, because it is easy to shape and gold crowns last a long time. Artists use thin sheets of gold to decorate objects.

Gold can be found in many rocks on Earth. In most cases , gold ore is mined deep under the surface. Sometimes gold is washed away by rain and wind. It gets into rivers where it sinks to the bottom because it is very heavy. In the middle of the 19th century a gold rush broke out all over the world. Gold was discovered in the rivers of Alaska, California and Australia.

Today, South Africa, the USA and Australia are the world’s largest gold-producing countries.

Gold bars
Image: Slav4|Ariel Palmon, CC BY-SA 3.0,
via Wikimedia Commons