Most metals are metallic grey or silvery white whereas gold is characteristically a metallic yellow colour, in other words gold-coloured. Caesium is also gold coloured. The gold colour seems related to relativistic effects of the outermost gold orbitals. Small amounts of other metals alloyed with gold change the colour as well as mechanical properties such as hardness. White gold for jewellery is formed by mixing palladium, silver, or nickel with gold, although the result is green gold with certain proportions of silver. White gold is commonly used for wedding rings in the USA. Addition of some copper gives "rose gold", a soft pink colour. Remarkably other colours such as purple (a gold:aluminium alloy), blue (a gold:indium alloy) and even black (a gold:cobalt alloy) may be formed.
Gold is usually alloyed in jewellery to give it more strength, and the term carat describes the amount of gold present (24 carats is pure gold). It is estimated that all the gold in the world, so far refined, could be placed in a single cube 60 ft. on a side. It is metallic, with a yellow colour when in a mass, but when finely divided it may be black, ruby, or purple.
It is the most malleable and ductile metal; 1 ounce (28 g) of gold can be beaten out to 300 square feet. It is a soft metal and is usually alloyed to give it more strength. It is a good conductor of heat and electricity, and is unaffected by air and most reagents. Gold is readily available commercially and its price changes day by day and is one of the most widely tracked commercial prices.
The most common gold compounds are auric chloride (AuCl3) and chlorauric acid (HAuCl4). A mixture of one part nitric acid with three of hydrochloric acid is called aqua regia (because it dissolved gold, the King of Metals). It is unaffected by air and most reagents. It is found free in nature and associated with quartz, pyrite and other minerals. Two thirds of the world's supply comes from South Africa, and 2/3 of USA production is from South Dakota and Nevada. Gold is found in sea water, but no effective economic process has been designed (yet) to extract it from this source.