If this seems a little too adventurous for your taste, an ETF or exchange traded fund is just the right kind of investment opportunity for you. It will help you buffer yourself against the ups and downs of volatile market in mining stocks. Expert stock analysts usually have no time for gold as an investment opportunity. They see the yellow metal is great for jewelry and little else. If you’re wondering about how to buy gold to invest in, you need to pay attention to how the price of gold, after having stayed stagnant for quite a while suddenly rose to $700 an ounce over just the space of a month last year. And for the most part it’s kept its value there. Does this make it a good investment opportunity? You bet it does, and here is why.

Gold essentially, works out of a very strong base. The world’s largest gold producing mines, companies like Barrick Gold and Newmont Mining are finding that the higher price of oil is driving up costs of prospecting for and mining for gold ore. And labor costs are up too. Not to mention the fact that gold ore is harder to come by today. All of these make for higher priced gold. And that makes it a good investment opportunity.

If you’re wondering about how to buy gold and time it correctly,the technical factors behind why gold is compelling as an investment today are even stronger. No matter how the price of gold fluctuates today, even the lowest prices it is capable of are pretty high. The mean price of gold has risen. Usually, when the price of gold is about to rise, gold shares seem to anticipate this and rise in price practically six months before. That hasn’t been the way they’ve risen this time around though. There was a recent article published that said that gold could rise to as much as $8000 an ounce. If that seems too ambitious, most experts predict that it should rise to about $3000 an ounce without a hitch. The price of gold is set to rise. How  and when you decide to buy in is entirely up to you.

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Two gold nuggets are noted for being the largest masses of gold ever discovered. These are the “Welcome Stranger” and the “Hand of Faith”. Their respective “largest” titles, however, carry further qualifications.

The Welcome Stranger Gold Nugget:

The exact distinction given of this gold nugget is: “the largest alluvial gold nugget ever found”. It was discovered on February 5, 1869 at Moliagul, a small township in Victoria, Australia about 37 miles west of the city of Bendigo. The discoverers, John Deason and Richard Oates, found the nugget just a couple inches below the surface on a slope in a place that’s sometimes called Black Reef.

Records have the following details about the Welcome Stranger:

• Gross weight: 3,523.5 troy ounces (241.61 pounds)
• Trimmed weight: 2,520 troy ounces (172.8 pounds)
• Net weight: 2,315.5 troy ounces (158.78 pounds)
• Measurement: 2 feet (0.61 meter) x 1.02 feet (0.31 meter)

For their find, Deason and Oates were paid about £19,068 by the London Chartered Bank (located in the town of Dunolly in Victoria), where they took the nugget.

The Welcome Stranger no longer exists today, although the gold from it understandably still does. Also, there exist two replicas of the nugget. One is in possession of the descendants of John Deason, while the other is in the City Museum in Treasury Place, in Melbourne.

The Hand of Faith Gold Nugget:

This gold nugget actually carries two distinctions: “the largest gold nugget found by a metal detector” and “the largest gold nugget currently in existence”. It was discovered on September 26, 1980 somewhere near the small town of Kingower in Victoria, Australia.

The nugget’s discoverer, Kevin Hillier, was aided by a metal detector in this precious find. Hillier found the nugget in a vertical position just a foot below the surface.

The Hand of Faith weighs 874.82 troy ounces (60 pounds) and measures 1.54 feet (0.47 meter) x 0.66 feet (0.20 meter) x 0.30 feet (0.09 meter). The Golden Nugget Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada currently houses the nugget. Its sale price was reportedly around 1 million U.S. dollars.

Gold nuggets actually are not composed of pure 24K gold. A safer estimate would be that they’re somewhere between 20K and 23K. Those found in Australia often have higher purity than the ones found in Alaska. The color of a nugget often provides a clue as to the purity of its gold content. Nuggets that have very rich deep orange/yellow color are sure to have higher gold content than pale ones.

Also, there is a system called “millesimal fineness” which is used to denote the purity of gold alloy (also of silver and platinum alloys) by parts per thousand of pure metal by mass in the alloy. A nugget containing 91.6% gold, for example, is denoted as “916 fine”. This fineness is equivalent to 22K.

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In the following list, the names of the discoverers and name etymologies of the seven precious metals (again, those with recorded discoveries) are provided. The year of discovery of each of these elements, as presented here, refers to the year when the element was first identified as the pure element. Also provided are their respective name etymologies.

1. Platinum – Antonio de Ulloa, a Spanish explorer and astronomer, is generally credited with the modern rediscovery (in 1735) of platinum. This precious metal actually was first described in 1557 by Giulio Cesare della Scala, an Italian physician. Because it was first chanced upon in silver mine in South America, platinum was named as such, after the Spanish word “platina”, which translates to “little silver”.

2. Palladium – William Hyde Wollaston, an English chemist and physicist, discovered palladium in 1803 in samples of platinum ore obtained from South America. He named it after the asteroid Pallas, which was discovered on March 28 the year before.

3. Osmium – Smithson Tennant, an English chemist, discovered osmium in 1803 from the residues of platinum ores that were dissolved in nitro-hydrochloric acid. Osmium’s characteristic of having a bad smell led to its naming as such, which was derived from the Greek word “osme”, meaning “smell”.

4. Iridium – Smithson Tennant discovered iridium in 1803, at the same time of his discovery of osmium from the same solution of platinum ores. Iridium is named after the Latin word “iris”, which means “rainbow”.

5. Rhodium – William Hyde Wollaston discovered rhodium in 1803, shortly after he discovered palladium. He discovered this precious metal from crude platinum samples obtained from South America. The name rhodium was derived from the Greek word “rhodon”, which means “rose”.

6. Ruthenium – Karl Karlovich Klaus, a Russian chemist and naturalist, is usually credited with the discovery of ruthenium (in 1844). He discovered it from platinum ore samples he obtained from the Ural Mountains in Russia. He named this precious metal after “ruthenia”, the Latin word for Klaus’s home country Russia.

7. Rhenium – A team of German chemists, composed of Walter Noddack, Ida Tacke, and Otto Carl Berg, discovered rhenium in 1925. They discovered the element from platinum ore samples as well as from the mineral gadolinite. They named it after the Latin word “rhenus”, for “Rhine”, one of Europe’s longest and most important rivers.

As for the precious metals gold and silver, both are known to be already in use since ancient times (gold was in use probably as early as before 6000 BC, while silver probably as early as before 5000 BC). The name “gold” was derived from the same Anglo-Saxon word, which translates to “bright yellow”. The name “silver”, on the other hand, is from “seolfor”, also an Anglo-Saxon word.

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Of this group of metals, platinum is considered the most widely traded, as it is extensively used in the following: catalytic converters; dental alloys and other dentistry equipment; electrical conductors; resistive thermal devices, laboratory dishes and such other equipment capable of resisting chemical attack even in high temperature; and, of course, jewelry.

As a transition element, platinum is gray-white in appearance. Often because of this, it is mistaken for silver. Its other physical characteristics include its being malleable, ductile, and dense. But while platinum is generally resistant to corrosion, it is corroded by certain elements, such as cyanides (potassium cyanide or sodium cyanide), caustic alkalis, sulfur, and any of the five halogens (astatine, bromine, chlorine, fluorine, and iodine).

The following lists some of the properties of platinum:

General:

* Chemical Symbol: Pt
* Atomic Number: 78
* Category (as an element): Transition Metal
* Group/ Period/ Block (in the Periodic Table): 10/ 6/ d
* Atomic Weight: 195.084 g.mol-1
* Electron Configuration: [Xe] 4f14 5d9 6s1

Physical:

* Density (near room temperature): 21.45 g.cm-3
* Liquid Density (at melting point): 19.77 g.cm-3
* Melting Point: 1768.3°C, 3214.9°F, 2041.4°K
* Boiling Point: 3825°C, 6917°F, 4098°K
* Heat of Fusion: 22.17 kJ.mol-1
* Heat of Vaporization: 469 kJ.mol-1

Atomic:

* Oxidation States: 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, -1, -2
* Electronegativity: 2.28 (Pauling scale)
* Atomic Radius: 139 picometre
* Covalent Radius: 136±5 picometre
* Van der Waals Radius: 175 picometre
* Ionization Energies: 870 kJ.mol-1 (first), 1791 kJ.mol-1 (second)

Platinum is known to occur as only three thousandth parts-per notation (0.003 ppm) in the Earth’s crust. This makes it an extremely rare metal.

Compared to gold, platinum is more precious, although its price is considered more volatile. One of the reasons for this is that its demand is driven by industrial uses or applications. For example, its price tends to be double that of gold’s when world economy is stable, but significantly goes down in times of economic uncertainty.

Because it’s wear-resistant and does not tarnish, platinum is highly valued by jewelers, especially watchmakers. In 2008, its price went up to as high as 2,252 U.S. dollars per troy ounce.

Being rare and, therefore, very precious, platinum has been made synonymous to things that are considered “of the highest quality”. We hear for instance of a platinum debit card holder enjoying a wide range of privileges; or of a platinum award being handed out to a music album that has sold over a million copies.

Platinum’s rarity and preciousness has been so pronounced in fact as early as the Eighteenth century, that then French King Louis XV even made a declaration making platinum “the only metal fit for a king”.

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Iridium was discovered in 1803 by the English chemist Smithson Tennant. It was identified from the residue of platinum ore which was dissolved in nitro-hydrochloric acid (also known as aqua regia). Platinum ores are still the main sources today of iridium. The precious metal is likewise obtained as a by-product of mining nickel.

Below are some of the properties of iridium.

General:

• Chemical Symbol: Ir
• Atomic Number: 77
• Category (as an element): Transition Metal
• Group/ Period/ Block (in the Periodic Table): 9/ 6/ d
• Atomic Weight: 192.217 g.mol-1
• Electron Configuration: [Xe] 4f14 5d7 6s2

Physical:

• Density (near room temperature): 22.56 g.cm-3
• Liquid Density (at melting point): 19 g.cm-3
• Melting Point: 2466°C, 4471°F, 2739°K
• Boiling Point: 4428°C, 8002°F, 4701°K
• Heat of Fusion: 41.12 kJ.mol-1
• Heat of Vaporization: 563 kJ.mol-1

Atomic:

• Oxidation States: -3, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
• Electronegativity: 2.20 (Pauling scale)
• Atomic Radius: 136 picometre
• Covalent Radius: 141±6 picometre

Because of its characteristic of being very brittle, pure iridium is quite difficult – almost impossible, in fact – to machine. Its primary use is as a hardening agent for platinum. High-temperature equipment, such as crucibles, are made from platinum-iridium alloys. Compass bearings, balances and fountain pen tips, on the other hand, are made from osmium-iridium alloys.

Again, iridium is the most corrosive resistant precious metal known. Coupled with its resistance to extremely high temperatures, this special characteristic makes iridium ideal for use in certain parts of aircraft engines. It is also alloyed with titanium to make deep-water pipes.

Other uses of iridium include the following:

1. Electrical contacts for spark plugs (due to its resistance to arc erosion);
2. Computer memory devices;
3. Direct-ignition engine (as a catalyst);
4. Radiotherapy (as a source of radiation);
5. X-ray telescopes.

In 2007, worldwide demand for iridium reached 3,701 kilograms (119,000 troy ounces). Distribution of these were as follows: electrochemical uses (1,100 kilograms); electrical uses (780 kilograms); for catalysis (750 kilograms); and other applications (1,100 kilograms).

Iridium is found at highest concentrations within the Earth’s crust in three specific types of geologic structures: in impact craters, in igneous deposits, and in deposits reworked from either of the first two. The Bushveld igneous complex in South Africa is the largest known primary reserves for iridium in the world. Other important sources of this precious metal are the Sudbury Basin in Canada and the nickel-copper-palladium deposits near Norilsk in Russia. Several smaller iridium reserves are also found in the United States.

Beginning the year 2000, the annual production of iridium is about 3 tonnes (96,500 troy ounces). Its price as of 2007 is 14,667 U.S. dollars per kilogram (440 U.S. dollars per troy ounce).

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The term “placer gold”, therefore, refers to gold that has formed in rocks moved and placed on stream beds by some geological forces and by the action of water. Lode gold tends to erode from its source, distributing itself naturally among other rocks that have been subjected to similar geological forces. This results to the formation of a secondary deposit.

Thus the mining of alluvial deposits for gold and other precious metal deposits is called “placer mining”. Placer mining may be done through a number of tunneling procedures into riverbeds. There also are the open-cast mining and hydraulic mining. In the former, placer mining is done by open-pit; in the latter, water pressure is used for excavation.

There are three placer mining methods used to mine placer gold:

Gold Panning:

This method, which involves the use of a pan, is the oldest and simplest way to extract gold from a placer deposit. In this method, mined ore is placed in a large pan (made either of plastic or metal) and poured with a liberal amount of water; it is then agitated. The gold particles, having higher density than the other materials (examples, mud, sand and gravel; also, gold is about nineteen times heavier than water), settle to the bottom of the pan, while the lighter materials are washed over the side.

Sluice Box:

This method uses the same principle as that in gold panning, only on a larger scale. In this method, a short sluice box is used. The box is constructed with barriers along its bottom, so that the gold particles are trapped as all materials are washed by water. The sluice box method is best suited for excavation in which certain implements, such as shovels, are used to feed ore into the box.

Trommel:

This method involves the use of a screened cylinder to separate materials by size (trommel is Dutch word for “drum”). A trommel specifically consists of a rotating metal tube that is slightly tilted, with a screen at the discharge end. Attached to the inside part of the metal tube are lifter bars. Ore is fed into the trommel through its elevated end. Pressurized water is supplied to the tube and the screen sections. Valuable minerals from the ore are separated by the combination of water and mechanical action. The small pieces of ore bearing the valuable minerals pass through the screen and are concentrated further in sluices. The larger ones (those that do not pass through the screen) are moved to a waste stack using a conveyor.

Today, placer mining goes on in many parts of the world as a source of gems and industrial metals and minerals. This is true in countries like Sri Lanka and Myanmar. Placer mining for placer gold continues in British Columbia, the Yukon, and especially in Alaska.

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