Dendrites , wires , nuggets , and small flakes are more common. Luster Metallic Cleavage None Fracture Hackly Tenacity Ductile and malleable Other ID Marks Excellent conductor of electricity Other Names Native Gold Varieties Picture Rock - Mixture of Gold and Quartz found in gold yielding quartz veins. The mineral Gold is almost always mixed with a small amount of silver, and sometimes contains traces of copper and iron. A Gold nugget is usually 70 - 90 percent gold, and the remainder mostly silver. The color of pure Gold is bright golden yellow, but the greater the silver content, the whiter the color.
Most Gold is mined from ore , containing tiny amounts of Gold in the ore.
The ore is brown, iron-stained rock or massive white Quartz . To extract the gold, the ore is crushed, then the gold is separated from the ore by various methods. Gold is less commonly found as nuggets. Nuggets are formed when erosion causes a large piece of Gold to separate from its mother rock, and then gets carried away into a stream or river. The flowing water tumbles the Gold, giving each specimen a distinct shape.