Gold as Jewellery

 

Jewellery accounts for the use of about 75% of newly-mined gold. Due to its lustre, colour, malleability, and resistance to tarnishing, gold has been used in jewellery for centuries and is still used in jewellery today. The malleability of pure gold presents a problem in jewellery as the demands of life can cause damage to pure gold jewellery, so gold is often alloyed with other precious metals such as copper, silver, and platinum to increase its durability.

 Alloys of gold have lower value than pure gold. The units used to evaluate and designate the amount of gold weight used in an alloy is known as "karatage". Pure gold is known as 24 karat gold or 24K gold. For an alloy that contains 75% gold, it is known as 18 karat gold (18/24ths) and is usually marked or stamped with "18K". An alloy with 50% gold is referred to as 12 karat gold (12/24ths) and is marked with "12K". Gold can alloy with different metals which change its colour. The colour tints of gold alloyed with other metals can be pink, white, yellow and even pale green.

Spending on jewellery is significant. Americans spent $34.6 billion dollars on jewellery in 2017, an increase of more than 5.2% year-over-year. Even though only 55% of American's will celebrate Valentine's Day, it is estimated that $3.9 billion will be spent on jewellery for Valentine's Day. Annual global sales for the jewellery market is expected to reach an estimated $282 billion dollars by 2020, according to McKinsey & Company.