Future of Engineering

Major gold rushes occurred in the United States, Australia, Canada, and South Africa in the 19th century. Looks like the scientists from Australia are on their way to trigger the next one with their latest findings. Nanoparticles of gold too small to be seen with the naked eye have been created in laboratories, but up until now, have never been seen in nature.

The CSIRO Scientists in collaboration with scientists from Curtin University and the University of Western Australia successfully sighted the elusive particle. Their research reveals that salty and acidic groundwater dissolves primary gold and re-deposits it as pure gold crystals on fracture surfaces and in open pore spaces.

Initially they took the clay from the fracture surface and analyzed it. They spotted a dark band across the crystals, not gold. But reports suggested that the clay contained up to 59 parts-per-million of gold.

Intrigued by the finding they subjected the crystals to high magnification imaging. Now the band showed its true colors. The band revealed the hidden, unseen world of gold nanoparticles. These are identical to those being manufactured in laboratories around the world for their unique properties.

This finding will help give us a deeper understanding of how gold can be transported and deposited by geological processes, and therefore help explorers to find new gold deposits in Australia.

Australian scientists seem to have struck gold, literally.

Source - Net News Publisher

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Labels: Chemical-Engineering, Metallurgical-Engineering