11 Things You May Not Know About Gold

From Ancient Egyptian tombs to the Gold Rush to the Mother Lode to gold refiners, gold has been an integral part of human life for millenniums. Much can be said about gold, it's history, it's makeup, how gold refiners do what they do, how important gold is, how it's made and found, what equipment gold refiners use to make things, and a lot more.

From ancient times to modern times, gold continues to reign in its value, worth, and appeal. Finding gold, placing monetary value, and how gold refiners turn this amazing element into useful things are all interesting, but instead, here are some fun trivia facts about gold to entertain, enlighten, and amuse.

1. The earliest record of gold exploration dates to Egypt around 2000 B.C.

2. Twenty-four-karat gold isn't pure gold. There's a little copper in it. Pure gold is so soft that it can be molded with your bare hands. A solitary ounce of gold can be drawn and stretched into an ultra-fine wire over 50 miles in length without breaking. Not useful when you want it to stay on your finger.

3. Gold can also be hammered to of one hundred thousandth of an inch without disintegrating.

4. Gold nuggets are as distinctive as snowflakes. No two nuggets are alike. A gold nugget of unique character and shape will sell for as much as five times its value by weight.

5. Gold is, with the exception of iron, the most broadly distributed element on the planet. Gold has been located on 90 percent of the earth's surface, and is mined in deserts, high mountain ranges, in the deeply weathered soil of the tropics and in the permanently frozen ground of the Arctic.

6. The Gold Rush expended 125 million troy ounces of gold, worth more than $50 billion by today's standards.

7. More than 80% of the gold in the Mother Lode is still yet to be found.

8. Gold is found in areas where lode deposits and erosion have occurred. The best places to look for nuggets are streams, rivers, ravines, lake areas and dry ravines.

9. In 1854, the largest gold nugget ever found was in California's Carson Hill above the Stanislaus River. It weighed 195 pounds and valued at $43,534 in the currency of the day. That would be about $4 million today.

10. Gold is found and or mined in Placer and Lode deposits. Placer deposits are settled pockets of loose gold caused by erosion, soil disruption, and earth movement. Lode is gold found in veins of deep underground in quartz deposits.

11. Gold's worth does not rely on the economic viability of any nation, political power or financial cartel. Gold has value in and of itself.