Try to guess which facts about gold are true

08.11.2016

Let's play a game: you need to choose 5 correct facts out of 15. Will you be able to guess what is true and what is fiction?

Fact No 1

Cavemen...

… consumed gold as a food supplement.
… used gold to hunt.
… believed that this yellow metal is useless.

Answer: Cavemen used gold to hunt.

Archaeologists have proved that ancient people used to shoot gold nuggets with their slingshots. In some regions, the tradition of shooting gold remained up to the XIX century, when guns replaced slingshots.

Fact No 2

Due to gold’s softness, ...

… it wears down in a few decades.
… it wears down in a few centuries.
… it does not wear down at all.

Answer: Gold wears down in a few decades.

For example, if you constantly wear a gold ring, it will be half as thick in a couple of decades. Interestingly, gold micro-particles settle on fabric. There is even a legend about a cashier who used a new piece of fabric as a bedding for coins each day. And every evening, he would burn this cloth, which resulted in deriving in a few grams of gold. A nice business!

Fact No 3

To obtain 500 tons of pure gold, one has to mine…

…50,000 tons of rock
…170,000 tons of rock
…70,000,000 tons of rock

Answer: 70,000,000 tons of rock.

That is the amount of rock mined in South Africa every year. The depth of mines there is up to 3.5 km! Thus, the global gold reserves increase by 500 tons of pure gold annually.

Fact No 4

How do miners in La Rinconada, Peru, receive their salary?

Once a month, they take as much gold home as they are able to carry.

They are paid only if gold was extracted from the rock.

They are paid in cash.

Answer: Once a month, they take as much gold home as they are able to carry.

The gold mines in La Rinconada are located at the height of more than 5 km. Miners’ work it hard, but people do not give up their job because the reward is worth it.

Fact No 5

In 2011, the method of extracting gold from ….. was discovered.

tomatoes
sunflowers
corn

Answer: From corn.

It has been scientifically proved that corn is the only plant that absorbs gold from soil. Amazingly, one ton of corn ash contains about 60 grams of this precious metal.