Seized Barrick gold now held at state-owned Malian bank BMS, sources say
Barrick on Tuesday confirmed it had suspended operations in the West African country.
The 20-carats gold nugget floats on top of milk foam. (Photo: Gustav Nyström and Raffaele Mezzenga | ETH Zurich)
A team of Switzerland-based researchers have created a gold-foam material from protein fibres derived from milk that is light enough to float on water and, even at today’s depressed prices, is about 1,000 times cheaper than solid gold.
The 20-carats gold nugget can hardly be differentiated from conventional gold with the naked eye – the aerogel even has a metallic shine, according to ETH Zurich’s press release.
But unlike bullion, the new material is soft and malleable by hand, as it consists of 98 parts air and only two parts of solid material. “Of this solid material, more than four-fifths are gold and less than one-fifth is milk protein fibrils,” the team explained.
Among its potential applications, the researchers envision light watches and jewellery. They also think it would be an excellent catalyst in scientific experiments because it’s so porous, allowing chemicals to react with the gold particles all the way through the foam.
The new gold form, they say, could even be used in pressure sensors. While the foam doesn’t conduct electricity under typical room conditions, the gold particles touch when the foam is compressed, allowing electricity to move through it.
Dr. Raffaele Mezzenga and Dr. Gustav Nyström published their study last week in the journal Advanced Materials.
Hat Tip: Kitco.com
2 Comments
Altaf
The primary uses of gold are bars / coins for store value, jewelry and industry.
Those who store gold as an asset will not replace it with this new gold sponge.
Jewelry can not use this gold sponge as it is extremely malleable and will damage the jewelry. Industry which uses hardly 10% of gold can not replace most of the applications with this gold sponge. As such this new product will not have any impact on gold prices / demand.
Probably a new use of this new gold sponge will open up to cater to the fun content.
KT
ohhh…wow… so milk is having god contain? Gold contain is there in all milk of animals ?