High purity specialty gases are frequently delivered to laboratories and research facilities, food and beverage plants, and medical facilities. It is not often that these gases are associated with the gold trade. Yet ultra high purity gases play a pivotal role across the spectrum of gold mining and the subsequent metallurgical processing, purification, and refining of ore into gold bars.
Sought after since history began, gold has myriad uses beyond the jewellery and monetary exchange of old. Owing to properties such as corrosion resistance, electrical conductivity, ductility and malleability, infrared reflectivity and thermal conductivity, today this precious metal has become a requisite in food and beverage production, automotive production, medicine, dentistry, industrial processes, electronics, space equipment, beauty products, and imaging.
China is currently the world’s top gold producer, followed by Australia, the United States, Russia, and South Africa. These five producers account for more than half of the world’s gold production. South Africa’s drop in ranking over recent decades is not a result of resource depletion, but rather of high production costs, as lower priced global sources have come on stream — and deep South African ores are, in comparison, relatively expensive to extract. While gold prices had a rollercoaster ride in 2013 compared with the seemingly unstoppable rise in price in 2012, gold remains sought after by both end-users and investors, as it has throughout history.
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