It is widely used to produce coins such as the Australian Nugget. Although Governments of most countries include holdings of gold as part of their monetary reserves many are starting to reduce their holdings. Financial institutions and individuals also use gold as a store of wealth. The main uses of gold are jewellery, dentistry, the adornment of buildings and for artistic purposes. In jewellery, gold is often mixed with other metals to produce alloys of different colours.
White gold is an alloy of gold with silver, palladium, nickel and copper.
Yellow, green and red golds are produced by alloying gold with copper and silver in different proportions. High electrical conductivity, malleability and ductility favour the use of gold in electronic and computer circuitry, radar equipment and satellites. Because of gold's heat reflecting properties it was used as a film coating on the Apollo 14 lunar module, the vehicle which first landed man on the moon. An important and growing use is in the mechanism and circuitry of safety air bags in motor vehicles. Australia's identified mineral resources, Bureau of Resource Sciences, Canberra.