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Gold is highly valued in the gem and jewelry trade because of its brilliant
yellow colour and its natural resistance to tarnishing. Pale gold is rich
in silver, and the luster of gold
is metallic. Gold is always an opaque when this element forms in a mineral.
Gold is often associated with veins in
Quartz (seen at left) where it forms through hydrothermal processes. It then becomes
possible to find deposits of gold as nuggets in sand or stream beds. Gold can
often be mistaken for Pyrite (Fool's Gold), and forms usually as flakes or
denritic (plant-like) masses when not in nuggets.
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