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Though
the ancient dream to brew gold by
artificial means was never materialised,
the admiration for the gleaming metal
never parted with the culture and
tradition of the Arab people. Many
centuries later, the love for gold would
produce effects the alchemists would have
only dreamed about. A modern proof of
this, the Dubai Gold and Diamond Park,
this luxurious variant of a gold souk is
the latest addition to the venue of the
visually pleasing metal. Just off the
highway between interchanges 3 and 4 on
Sheikh Zayd Road, its Arabic style façade
seems not too different from many others
around. Enter inside however, and an array
of exquisite glitter strikes the eye. A
multitude of jewellery shops exude a
delicate sparkling display, reinforcing
Dubai’s image as a leader in the
industry of gold. The City of Gold, as the
emirate markets itself, has become an
established trademark. But what is in gold
that renders it supreme to have such a
modern city proudly make it its symbol?
Gold’s
Glowing History
The oldest precious metal known to man,
gold’s gleaming texture caught his
attention in the earliest of times. No one
can quite determine the date of
mankind’s first encounter, and
consequent obsession, with the fascinating
metal. Artefacts found in Spanish caves
suggest Paleolithic man used it as far
back as 40,000 BC. Discoveries of more
recent epochs reveal gold was a symbol of
divinity, royalty, and beauty throughout
history.
The making of jewellery from gold can be
traced into history some five to six
thousand years ago. Chains, rings,
earrings, and all sorts of charms have
been part of divine and royal life
enhancement. Highly malleable, the
precious metal was easily workable,
ensuring a relatively smooth moulding
process. The great ancient civilizations
developed skilful gold artistic
traditions. Pharaohs
used the relic metal for beautification in
ancient Egypt. Greece and Rome too, produced a splendid legacy of golden treasures.
Likewise, in eastern civilizations such as
those in China and India, gold
has been made into articles of
ornamentation and into religious icons.
Later, during
the Middle Ages, the metal found
widespread use in Europe for crosses,
altars, doors, chalices, and reliquaries.
Then came Columbus's
discovery of America, which opened an era
of gold production the world had not seen
to that time. It prompted many to leave
for the new world in search of golden
riches. A few hundred years later, history
witnessed the most famous gold craze in
the California gold rush of 1848.
Today, nearly half of the world's gold is
kept by governments and central banks. All
countries still regard it as a medium of
international payment. Its inimitable
virtues have made it the sole stuff
accepted globally in exchange for goods
and services. In the form of coins or gold
bars, gold has been used as a
high-denomination currency. It backed
paper-currency systems when they became
common in the 19th century, and from the
1870s until World War I gold made the
basis for the world's currencies. After
1980, gold's formal importance in the
international monetary system became
obsolete, but the metal is still greatly
valued as a reserve asset.
The presence of gold has indeed made a
remarkable impact on the human psyche.
Freud, father of psychoanalysis, would
argue that our interest in gold has to do
with the erotic fantasies of early
childhood. A less ambitious presumption
simply maintains that the passion for gold
comes from the combining of visually
pleasing features with scarcity. Indeed, gold
is so rare that world steel production for
one hour is more than all the gold ever
found. The effect of gold is also built
up due to its
permanence, as virtually all of the yellow
metal ever mined is still in existence. Putting
it all together, gold
is the only precious metal to provide
shimmering beauty, high
malleability,
rarity, and virtual indestructibility. No
wonder the passion for gold has been
verbalised in the famous saying, “More
men have been knocked off balance by gold
than by love!”
The
Karat System
The fineness, or purity, of gold is
usually expressed in karats, which
represent content parts of gold per 24. By
this system, pure gold is expressed as 24
karats fine or just as 24K. Pure gold in
commercial use is actually 99.95 to fine,
but is technically considered 100 percent.
The gold content of any gold article
depends on the proportion of pure gold it
contains. The most popular standard for
jewellery gold content is 24 K or pure
gold, 18K or 75% gold, 14K or 58.33% gold,
and 10K or 41.67% gold.
In history, the karat system was
named after a medieval coin known as a mark.
One mark weighed 24 karats. Pure gold was
mixed with other metals such as copper in
the making of this type of coin, as gold
by itself was very soft for such use. When
additives were present, a harder alloy was
produced, and the purity of the resulting
coin was specified according to the
proportion of its karat weight that was
essentially contributed by gold.
Pure 24K gold displays the distinctive
warm “golden” colour of the unmixed
metal, and its shade is alterable only if
the purity is decreased. Specific tints
are the result of adding in various
proportions of other metals, which at the
same time increase hardness of gold
products. Thus, all the shades of yellow
and different degrees of reds, whites, and
even greens are achievable. Silver, for
example, has the effect of making the
alloy greenish-yellow to white. Increased
proportion of copper produces a rather red
glowing texture. Nickel acts as a
whitening substance on gold. In fact, what
is known as “white gold” is nothing
more than gold mixed with nickel.
Jewellery
Making
Indubitably,
jewellery is the principal end use for gold. Two-thirds
of the metal mined annually goes into the
making of jewellery,
amounting to over 3,100 tonnes. Due to its
easy workability,
gold can be hammered so thin that sunlight
can shine through it. The options for
creative expression are therefore almost
endless. One of three types of techniques
is employed in the process of jewellery
making. The "lost wax"
technique, or investment casting, was
developed more than 4,000 years ago. It
enabled the jewellery maker, and still
does so, to make exact replicas of an
item.
This technique is the
most often used one, making for about
sixty percent of all gold jewellery
produced. The
method consists of an article being
replicated by forcing moulted gold in to a
mould. It duplicates jewellery quickly and
precisely. Since its invention, investment
casting has transformed the designing and
making of jewellery as it can cast an item
much less expensively than if it were
individually manufactured.
Chain making is a different
technique. In the process, loops of gold
wire are joined to create a chain, shaped
in such a way as to allow flexibility.
Although hand-made gold chains are widely
available, computerized machines are
beginning to take over and are fabricating
a wide variety of different designs.
Another method is known as stamping, or
die-striking. By this approach, pieces of
jewellery are pressed out, entirely or in
part, by driving hardened steel dies of
different forms into a leaf of gold in a
stamping motion. This process is also
generally used for mass production of a
particular design or shape. Cleaning and
polishing is the last step in jewellery
making, and it applies to all of the above
methods.
Dubai
– City of Gold
The city of Dubai has become popular for
the superiority of the gold that can be
found here. The
marvellous metal has been one of the
emirate’s earliest objects of trade.
Clearly the gold trading hub of the Middle
East and India region today, Dubai started
out as a historical focal point on the
international gold trading routes. Ever
since, the emirate has been building up to
its present image, earning popularity for
its quality products and for the
shrewdness in its re-export activity to
regional markets. It is
one of the biggest physical
re-distributors of gold, and the fastest
developing gold centre in the world. Every
year Dubai
imports on an average three hundred tons
of gold.
Harbouring traditional charm, the Dubai
Gold Souk remains the most energetic gold
retail marketplace. Owing to the
emirate’s free trade policy with
virtually no taxes, gold jewellery from
the main producing centres is offered at
competitive prices lower than retailers’
prices in these centres. The principal
attitude expressed at the Dubai Gold Souk
is one of low profit margins and high
volumes. The result is the least expensive
gold jewellery one can reasonably wish
for. Outstanding quality and seemingly
endless variety is on display on all
sides, making for an amazing exhibit of
gold that can only be witnessed here.
Approximately 10 tons of gold is
constantly present at the souk. It is
available in every possible shape and
design, from rings and necklaces to
bracelets to simple gold bars. More than a
couple of hundred shops and over a hundred
wholesale stores are all located within a
walkabout of some fifteen minutes.
The new addition of the Gold and Diamond
Park was created to expand the gold and
diamond market scene. The site
accommodates prominent regional and
international jewellery makers and
traders. The jewellery is hallmarked as a
sign of originality and indisputable
quality. All facilities are set to make it
a key global-scale location for the gold
and diamond jewellery-making industry.
Together, the Gold and Diamond Park and
the traditional Gold Souk pledge a truly
“golden” future for the City of Gold.
Indeed, basing its image upon the ardour
for gold, Dubai has played an especially
strong card. More importantly, living up
to this image, the emirate is faithful to
its gold-intertwined heritage. If only
those alchemists could have imagined.
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