Extracting Gold

A gold bar is stamped with a serial number at a U.S. refinery in 2001. The bar, which
weighed about 40 pounds (18 kilograms), was one of nine gold bars poured that day.
AP PHOTO/JOE KAFKA

Removing the gold-bearing rock from the ground is just the first step. To isolate pure
gold, mining companies use a complex extraction process. The first step in this
process is breaking down large chunks of rock into smaller pieces. At a mill, large
machines known as crushers reduce the ore to pieces no larger than road gravel.
The gravel-like material then enters rotating drums filled with steel balls. In these
drums, the ore is ground to a fine slurry or powder.

Next, mill operators thicken the slurry with water to form pulp and run the pulp
through a series of leaching tanks. Leaching dissolves the gold out of the ore using a
chemical solvent. The most common solvent is cyanide, which must be combined
with oxygen in a process known as carbon-in-pulp. As the cyanide and oxygen react
chemically, gold in the pulp dissolves. When workers introduce small carbon grains
to the tank, the gold adheres to the carbon. Filtering the pulp through screens
separates the gold-bearing carbon.

The carbon moves to a stripping vessel where a hot caustic solution separates the
gold from the carbon. Another set of screens filters out the carbon grains, which can
be recycled for future processing. Finally, the gold-bearing solution is ready
for electrowinning, which recovers the gold from the leaching chemicals. In
electrowinning, operators pour the gold-bearing solution into a special container
known as a cell. Positive and negative terminals in the cell deliver a
strong electric current to the solution. This causes gold to collect on the negative
terminals.
Smelting, which results in nearly pure gold, involves melting the negative terminals in
a furnace at about 2,100 degrees F (1,149 degrees C). When workers add a chemical
mixture known as flux to the molten material, the gold separates from the metal
used to make the terminals. Workers pour off the flux and then the gold. Molds are
used to transform the liquid gold into solid bars called doré bars. These low-purity
bars are then sent to refineries all over the world for further processing.

Refining Gold

One result of refining: the white gold wedding rings made for Jennifer Aniston and
Brad Pitt when the two married in 2000. These rings look like they may have a
rhodium plating. Many people don't like the look of white gold without the plating.
AP PHOTO/HO

The final stage of gold production -- refining -- involves removing impurities that
remain after the smelting process. Refining companies receive doré bars, as well as
scrap gold, and reliquefy the metal in a furnace. Workers add borax and soda ash to
the molten metal, which separates the pure gold from other precious and less
precious metals. A sample is then taken to a lab for tests, or assays, that measure
the gold content. In most cases, the gold is 99.9 percent pure. Workers cast the gold
produced during refining into bars.

What happens next depends on how the gold will be used. Pure gold is generally too
soft for most practical applications, so other metals are nearly always added to it.
When gold is combined in this way, it forms an alloy. Scientists and goldsmiths often
use colors to designate the various gold alloys that are possible. For example, white
gold is made by combining gold with nickel, silver or palladium. Red or pink gold is
an alloy of gold and copper. And blue gold is the result of mixing gold with iron.

Karatage refers to how much gold is present in an object versus another alloy. A

higher karatage indicates a higher proportion of gold in the sample. So, 24-karat gold
is 100 percent gold, while 12-karat gold has exactly half as much. The common
karatages are shown in the accompanying sidebar.
Interestingly, different cultures prefer different karatages. For example, the people of
India are partial to 22-karat gold, while Europeans prefer 18-karat gold. In the United
States, 14-karat gold, which offers a balance between gold content, hardness and
affordability, is by far the most popular [source: World Gold Council: Jewelry
Inspirations].

Most people are familiar with karatage as it applies to jewelry, and jewelry accounts
for nearly two-thirds of the global demand for gold [source: Gerlach]. In the next
section, we'll examine the other uses of gold.