ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the high-price metals: gold, silver and platinum; palladium, iridium, rhodium, ruthenium and osmium; the last six being referred to collectively as the platinum metals, for they are usually found in nature associated with platinum. The untarnishable nature of gold and to a smaller extent silver, led to their being amongst the first metals to be discovered and recognized, gold being well known to the Egyptians 8,000 years ago. Of this metal Dr. Charles Seltman says 'Found in the earth almost unalloyed, untarnishable, its purity capable of test by fire whence it emerged unaltered, everlasting, immutable, it became a kind of symbol of immortality for which mankind forever hankered.' Its desirability for decorative purposes and as a medium of exchange has been long appreciated, especially in the near Eastern lands whence our civilization began. At the present time gold comes mainly from lode deposits, this being the form of the deposit in South Africa, the chief gold-producing country.
