If commercial applications can use the white powder version then it is just as valuable to them as the metallic form. It should, rather, be considered another form of matter. E.g., plasmas are a unique phase of matter and not just a really hot gas. There are other recogonized phases of matter as well, including Bose-Einstein condensates and liquid crystals. So you might say that the white powder form of gold is a new phase of matter.
Most elements never exhibit metalic characterists.
I think it's pretty obvious we are talking about metallic group elements there. I removed that. More insight is needed in this area. I think it is still the strong nuclear force. For the record, I doubt that it is a Coulomb wave.