The beautiful precious metal has a history going back thousands of years and it is now used in industry, medicine, dentistry and even food
Gold's beauty and intrinsic values have captivated people for thousands of years. Stone Age man wore jewellery made of gold nuggets, the ancient Egyptians revered gold as a divine and indestructible metal, and virtually every civilisation since has coveted the precious metal.
Gold's shiny, yellow lustre neither tarnishes nor corrodes and can be produced in different colours by alloying it with other metals. Adding palladium or nickel creates white gold; rose-coloured gold contains copper; green gold is alloyed with silver, purple gold with aluminium and blue gold with iron, indium or gallium.
Surface coatings can blacken gold or give it a brownish colour, both of which are popular trends now.
Pure gold (99.9 per cent) is 24 carats and is called chuk kam in Cantonese. Although vibrant demand exists in Asia for chuk kam jewellery because it holds its value, alloyed gold is more traditionally seen in western-style jewellery. Typical gold alloys include 18-carat (75 per cent gold), 14-carat (58.5 per cent) and 12-carat (50 per cent) jewellery.
'Gold jewellery is a way of displaying wealth. It makes you feel good and look good,' said Albert Cheng, Far East managing director for the World Gold Council, the marketing arm of the gold-mining industry.
