Uses of Gold - What is Gold Used For?

Gold’s unique properties have made it both a symbol of wealth and a practical metal used in numerous industries. You’ll find it in Olympic medals and wedding rings, in the vaults of central banks and on spaceships to reflect infrared radiation.

In this article, we explore the numerous uses of gold as well as the physical properties that contribute to its perceived value.

Gold’s physical properties

Before we dive into gold’s applications, let’s first understand its unique physical properties. These are the reasons why it has been valued for thousands of years and why it’s still so valuable today.

Gold’s unique properties include:

• Rarity: Gold is one of the rarest elements in the Earth’s crust, giving it enduring value.
• Durability: Gold doesn’t rust or tarnish, like most metals do, and it’s also non-toxic. This corrosion resistance means gold objects can last for hundreds of years without losing their shine.
• Beauty: Gold’s natural yellow lustre makes it universally admired for its beauty.
• Malleability: Gold is the most malleable and ductile of all metals. It can be beaten into sheets so thin they’re almost transparent, or drawn into extremely fine gold wires without breaking.
• Conductivity: Gold is an efficient and reliable conductor of heat and electricity.

Gold is relatively soft and heavy compared to other metals, which makes it easy to work with. In its natural state, it often contains small amounts of other elements like silver, copper, or iron. These impurities, and the way gold is alloyed with other metals, can create a range of different strengths and colours. For example, copper gives gold a reddish hue (‘red gold’) while mixing gold with platinum produces a silvery-white colour (‘white gold’).

Gold’s purity is measured in carats, with 24-carat gold representing pure gold. Since gold is so soft and malleable, most jewellery and bullion products are made with slightly lower levels to improve strength and wearability.

See: Density of Gold: A Simple Guide and Tables

Uses of gold - what is gold used for?

Now that we understand gold’s unique physical properties a bit more, let’s look at its various applications across jewellery, investments, electronics, medicine, and more.

Jewellery, adornments, and medals

Jewellery is by far the most common use of gold. Its use in jewellery dates back thousands of years, with archaeological evidence showing gold jewellery being made more than 6,000 years ago. In Ancient Egypt, it was famously used as a burial treasure, such as with Tutankhamun’s mask. Today, around half of the gold mined each year is turned into jewellery, according to the World Gold Council.

But what makes gold so popular in jewellery? It’s a combination of factors: the precious metal is easy to shape, tarnish resistant, and has a natural lustre and colour that no other metal can match. China and India are the largest markets for gold jewelry and together account for half of global demand. In many cases, gold jewellery is considered not only decorative but also a store of wealth.

Beyond jewellery, gold’s prestige also makes it popular in medals, badges, and artworks, from gold medals to religious icons and Oscars trophies. Gold leaf has also been used to decorate books, frames, and architecture for a long time, and gold solder and thread are also used in craftsmanship and embroidery.

Finance and investing

Gold has served as a form of currency for thousands of years. The first pure gold coins were minted in Lydia (modern Turkey) around 560 BC, and gold was used for hundreds of years as currency or to back national money supplies under the ‘gold standard’.

Learn More: Bretton Woods Agreement and the Institutions it Created, Explained

Today, gold is no longer used as legal tender in financial transactions, but it’s still considered the world’s most trusted store of value. Central banks, governments, institutions, and individuals all hold gold in the form of gold bullion bars and coins to safeguard against inflation, economic instability, or geopolitical risk.

Gold investment products include gold bullion bars as well as gold coins like South Africa’s Gold Krugerrand or the Canadian Gold Maple Leaf. Investors wanting to hold large amounts of gold usually buy gold bars, while those wanting smaller, more divisible amounts prefer gold coins.

Investment gold is typically made from 24k 99.99% yellow gold, although purities can vary depending on the product (e.g. Krugerrands are made from 22k, 91.67% pure gold).

Keep Reading: Why Central Banks Buy Gold

Dentistry and medicine gold

Gold’s resistance to corrosion and non-toxic nature have made it valuable in medicine and dentistry for thousands of years.

In dentistry, gold has been used in dental fillings, crowns, bridges, and orthodontic devices since at least 700 BC when dentists used gold wire to fasten replacement teeth. The most common type of gold used in dentistry is 15k+ white gold or other gold alloys.

Read More: What is White Gold and What are its Characteristics?

In modern medicine, gold compounds and isotopes have been used to treat conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, tuberculosis, and certain cancers. For example, gold-198 is a radioisotope used in nuclear medicine. Small gold implants are also used to help patients with eyelid disorders blink properly.

Gold nanoparticles are also increasingly used in medical research and diagnostics. Colloidal gold (nanoparticles suspended in fluid) is used in electron microscopy and in tests, including some COVID-19 tests, because it can bind to proteins and highlight them in biological samples.

Aerospace industry and space exploration

Gold’s reflective properties, conductivity, and corrosion resistance make it a reliable metal that’s ideal for spacecraft and satellites, and you’ll find gold in hundreds of components on every spacecraft launched by NASA and other agencies.

Gold-coated polyester films reflect intense solar radiation to protect astronauts and sensitive equipment from extreme temperatures. Astronaut visors are coated with thin layers of gold to block harmful radiation while still allowing them to see. Gold is also used as a lubricant between moving parts in space, since organic lubricants would evaporate or break down under radiation.

Electronics

Gold is a highly efficient conductor, and its corrosion resistance makes it perfect for connectors, switches, and circuit boards in electronic devices. The typical smartphone contains about 50mg of gold within its electronic components – worth only a few dollars individually, but across nearly a billion cell phones produced each year adds up to billions of dollars in gold demand.

Gold is also used in computers, televisions, global positioning systems (GPS), and advanced telecommunications equipment to support reliable data transmission.

Food

One of the lesser-known uses of gold is in the food industry. Gold is chemically inert, has no taste, and passes harmlessly through the body, making it safe to use as a decorative food additive (registered in Europe as E175).

The nobility has added gold leaf and flakes to food and drink for hundreds of years, and gourmet restaurants, chocolatiers, and even bars continue this luxurious tradition today. You might find anything from a gold-infused cocktail to a 24k gold encrusted steak, although gold itself has no nutritional value.

Architecture and building

Gold’s malleability allows it to be beaten into thin sheets just millionths of an inch thick, known as gold leaf. Gold leaf has been used for centuries to decorate frames, furniture, religious icons, and domes of churches and temples, known for providing a long-lasting, corrosion-resistant finish that endures for generations.

Gold is also used in modern glassmaking. Adding small amounts of gold creates ruby-red coloured glass, and gold coatings on architectural glass help regulate temperature by reflecting solar radiation outward in summer and trapping heat in winter.

Substitutes for gold

It’s clear that gold’s unique properties make it useful in numerous applications. But high gold prices and the metal’s rarity have pushed manufacturers to find ways to reduce the amount of gold they use in production.

In jewellery, for example, base metals can be clad with thin layers of gold alloy to maintain the appearance of solid gold while using much less of the actual metal itself. In electronics, designs are often being refined to minimise the quantity of gold needed in connectors and circuits while still maintaining reliability.

But when it comes to direct substitutes, few metals come close to sharing gold’s desirable properties. The most common alternatives are palladium, platinum, and silver, all of which are durable and excellent conductors, but none of which match gold’s full combination of corrosion resistance, malleability, and cultural value, not to mention its distinct yellow hue.

Future uses for gold

Because gold is so expensive, it’s only used when there’s no cheaper alternative available. This means that once gold is used for something, it’s rarely abandoned, leading to a steady increase in the number of applications for gold over time. With new technologies constantly emerging in the modern world, we’ll probably see more and more uses of gold.

In medicine, gold nanoparticles are being tested in targeted drug delivery systems, helping carry medication directly to cancer calls while minimising harm to healthy tissue. Gold-based nanotechnology is also enhancing diagnostic tools, with the potential to detect diseases earlier and improve treatment outcomes.

In the energy sector, gold is becoming increasingly used in sustainable technologies. Nanoparticles are being integrated into fuel cells to increase efficiency and durability, while gold’s conductive properties help improve the performance of solar panels.

In the future, gold might play a role in quantum computing, where its stability and conductivity make it useful for use in qubits (building blocks of quantum processors). Gold is also being explored for its potential in advanced sensors, high-performance communication systems, and other future technologies.

Invest in gold today

Gold’s unique physical properties have made it a trusted asset for thousands of years. If you’d like to tap into this metal’s enduring value, there’s no better way than by owning a piece of it yourself.

At StoneX Bullion, we offer a wide range of investment-grade gold bullion bars and gold coins from the world’s most prestigious mints and refineries. Explore our collection and start preserving your wealth with gold today.