Industrial Uses

Industrial Uses

Over the years there have been many different implementations of gold. There are many qualities of gold that are very useful to the industrial sectors. The ductility, reflectivity, malleability, unparalleled thermal and electrical conductor ability, and last but certainly not least its resistance to corrosion are just a few of the reasons that gold is used in such a wide variety of things when it comes to industrial uses for gold. In fact the industrial sectors consume around 300 tonnes of gold annually making them one of the biggest consumers of gold in any industry.

There are many different specific industrial uses for gold for many different types of companies and factories. For example, the main use of gold when it comes to industrial uses is in electronics. The technology of today requires gold in many different products. Some of the products that commonly use gold include everything from washing machines to spacecrafts and everything in between. Some specific products include calculators, computers, televisions, and watches. There are many products that you most likely own that you may have been unaware of the use of gold. Your telephone, for example, usually contains around 33 gold plated contacts.

Producing plating salts for electronics is one of the biggest industrial uses for gold accounting for more than 70 % of all the gold used for industrial uses making it around 150 tonnes of the gold used annually for these types of applications. The use of gold for products like these has gone down due to advancements in technology, however gold will still have to be used until there is a replacement that is more efficient or until technology changes to not incorporate gold into the design of these products.