Gold also isn't affected by magnetic fields. But don't go tearing old phones apart expecting a bonanza. One of the wonderful properties of gold is that it is so soft and malleable that it retains its conductive properties even when spread thin enough to barely cover the surface it's coating. Gold is so elastic that one troy ounce can be hammered into a sheet of gold leaf that covers 250 square feet. That same troy ounce of gold can be pulled into a 50-mile long strand of wire.
Gold is used in electronic equipment because it's dependable in extremes of heat and humidity.
In the Hubble Space Telescope, for example, gold was used for contacts and connectors that will long outlive the telescope's usefulness. Astronauts' visors are coated with gold thin enough to see through because gold is a great reflector of the sun's heat and light rays. Fine powdered gold even makes one of the world's finest lubricants. Unlike oil, gold isn't affected by chemical breakdown and evaporation. Gold, held in bar form in such places as Fort Knox, Ky., was once used to back up the paper money of many countries.