Do gold alloys form naturally?

[SorenCoins]

I was wondering if gold alloys like rose gold, white gold, electrum, etc., form naturally.

 

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[galenrog]

Gold in nature is impure. Are you asking if specific alloys manufactured for jewelry occur naturally?

 

[SorenCoins]

I mean do electrum (gold and silver), rose gold (gold and copper), and white gold (gold and nickel) form naturally. Like white gold is white, can i find white gold in nature.

 

[Injunbro]

Isn't "white gold" actually platinum?

 

[SorenCoins]

Ive heard it is both

 

[kcm]

In answer to your question, yes. Natural gold is normally mixed with other metals and/or minerals. Sometimes gold has been found that is .99 pure, but that's pretty rare.

There are basically two types of gold that you'll find in nature (no, jewelry isn't one of them ). There is placer gold and hard rock gold. Placer gold is what has been freed from hard rock, usually over many, many years and lots of erosion. Hard rock is just that - minerals that are still bound up in a vein within the rock of the Earth's crust.

In both instances, the gold may be "free" or "native" gold, or it may be locked up in other minerals, such as sulfides. With sulfide ores, you cannot just crush the rock and pan out the metals, but instead need to roast the ores and then crush and pan, or use chemical means to leech the metals from the rock.

The simplest mining to know is placer mining, and there's still a LOT to that! With hard rock mining, you have to know mechanics, geology, chemistry, and even metallurgy. And lastly, every location is different. The gold will still have basically the same properties, but even in a given area, gold may be 30% pure in one spot, while 100' away the gold is 80% pure. With hard rock mining, veins normally start out as oxide ores near the surface and turn to sulfide ores at depth - usually where water can gain access inside the rock.

Now going back to your question, amalgam is made up of gold and mercury. Both occur naturally - therefore, amalgam occurs naturally. Gold is commonly found mixed with silver with occasional copper, which is called electrum. Rose gold is a mix of gold and copper.

 

[Eu_citzen]

kcm nailed it.

As for white gold, its usually platinum, palladium or silver. Some people are allergic to nickel, so it's not used that much if at all these days.
Well, at least not here.

 

[IAMZIM]

All the placer gold I have found here is from a little gultch near where I live. All of it is only about 90-91% gold, the rest is silver, which would make it (I think) natural electrum. So I concur with kcm!

 

[SorenCoins]

Thanks, isnt hard rock also called lode

 

[gunsil]

There occurs in the Black Hills of N Dakota natural green and rose gold. There has been jewelry using these native gold alloys made for years.

 

[kcm]

@ SorenCoins - Yes. Hard rock mining and Lode mining are the same critter.

@ Gunsil - Hey there! Haven't seen you post in a while. Yes, you're right....again! Lots of copper AND gold in the Black Hills. Got some natural copper nuggets that a friend made. Natural, meaning that the copper is not fully refined. There's still gold and trace amounts of many other metals in the nuggets. That's some of his below:

 

[Alex Burke]

I was wondering if gold alloys like rose gold, white gold, electrum, etc., form naturally.

Hi, this wiki page does a good job of describing the different alloys used in jewelry as well as how the natural gold color varies by purity.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colored_gold

 

[SorenCoins]

Wow this is made from gold from the Black Hills

 

[SorenCoins]

Ive seen that page before, always tried to find a picture of purple gold, then I searched up AuAl2 and here we go! Very interesting.