Industry
Date: 2015-10-07; view: 401.
- Gold solder is used for joining the components of gold jewelry by high-temperature hard soldering or brazing. If the work is to be of hallmarkingquality, gold solder must match the carat weight of the work, and alloy formulas are manufactured in most industry-standard carat weights to color match yellow and white gold. Gold solder is usually made in at least three melting-point ranges referred to as Easy, Medium and Hard. By using the hard, high-melting point solder first, followed by solders with progressively lower melting points, goldsmiths can assemble complex items with several separate soldered joints.
- Gold can be made into thread and used in embroidery.
- Gold produces a deep, intense red color when used as a coloring agent in cranberry glass.
- In photography, gold toners are used to shift the color of silver bromide black-and-white prints towards brown or blue tones, or to increase their stability. Used on sepia-toned prints, gold toners produce red tones. Kodak published formulas for several types of gold toners, which use gold as the chloride.[54]
- As gold is a good reflector of electromagnetic radiation such as infrared and visible light as well as radio waves, it is used for the protective coatings on many artificial satellites, in infrared protective faceplates in thermal protection suits and astronauts' helmets and in electronic warfare planes like the EA-6B Prowler.
- Gold is used as the reflective layer on some high-end CDs.
- Automobiles may use gold for heat shielding. McLaren uses gold foil in the engine compartment of its F1 model.[55]
- Gold can be manufactured so thin that it appears transparent. It is used in some aircraft cockpit windows for de-icing or anti-icing by passing electricity through it. The heat produced by the resistance of the gold is enough to deter ice from forming.
The consumption of gold produced in the world is about 50% in jewelry, 40% in investments, and 10% in industry.
India is the world's largest single consumer of gold, as Indians buy about 25% of the world's gold, purchasing approximately 800 tonnes of gold every year, mostly for jewelry. India is also the largest importer of gold; in 2008, India imported around 400 tonnes of gold. Indian households hold 18,000 tonnes of gold which represents 11% of the global stock and worth more than $950 billion.
| Gold jewelry consumption by country (in tonnes). | ||||
| Country | ||||
 India
| 745.70 | 442.37 | 986.3 | |
| Greater China | 428.00 | 376.96 | 921.5 | 817.5 |
 United States
| 128.61 | 150.28 | 199.5 | |
 Turkey
| 74.07 | 75.16 | ||
 Saudi Arabia
| 72.95 | 77.75 | 69.1 | 58.5 |
 Russia
| 67.50 | 60.12 | 76.7 | 81.9 |
 United Arab Emirates
| 63.37 | 67.60 | 60.9 | 58.1 |
 Egypt
| 53.43 | 56.68 | 47.8 | |
 Indonesia
| 32.75 | 41.00 | 52.3 | |
 United Kingdom
| 27.35 | 31.75 | 22.6 | 21.1 |
| Other Persian Gulf Countries | 21.97 | 24.10 | 19.9 | |
 Japan
| 18.50 | 21.85 | -30.1 | 7.6 |
 South Korea
| 15.87 | 18.83 | 15.5 | 12.1 |
 Vietnam
| 14.36 | 15.08 | 100.8 | |
 Thailand
| 6.28 | 7.33 | 107.4 | 80.9 |
| Total | 1805.60 | 1508.70 | ||
| Other Countries | 254.0 | 251.6 | 390.4 | 393.5 |
| World Total | 2059.6 | 1760.3 | 3487.5 | 3163.6 |
A precious metal is a rare, naturally occurring metallic chemical element of high economic value. Chemically, the precious metals are less reactivethan most elements. They are usually ductile and have a high lustre. Historically, precious metals were important as currency but are now regarded mainly as investment and industrial commodities. Gold, silver, platinum, and palladium each have an ISO 4217 currency code.
The best-known precious metals, which are the coinage metals gold and silver. While both have industrial uses, they are better known for their uses inart, jewellery and coinage. Other precious metals include the platinum group metals: ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium, and platinum, of which platinum is the most widely traded.
The demand for precious metals is driven not only by their practical use but also by their role as investments and a store of value. Historically, precious metals have commanded much higher prices than common industrial metals.
Literature:
1. Krishna, Vijay (2002), Auction Theory, San Diego, USA: Academic Press
2. Milgrom, Paul (2004), Putting Auction Theory to Work, Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press
3. Shubik, Martin (March 2004), The Theory of Money and Financial Institutions: Volume 1, Cambridge , Mass., USA: MIT Press, pp. 213–219