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Asked by issi2001 to Anil, Blanka, Cees, Emma, Mike on 2 Jul 2012.
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Michael Cook answered on 2 Jul 2012:
Gold and silver are both elements – they are made up of just one kind of atom, unlike metals like bronze or steel, which are made by mixing different metals together. So no-one really invented them, just discovered them!
Most metals are found in rocks in very tiny amounts, although they are sometimes found in tiny chunks on their own. When it’s found mixed into rock, we call the rock an ore (so you have gold ore, silver ore, and so on). Ores can be processed to get the stuff you want out of it – one way of doing it is to use very high heats to get rid of all the stuff you don’t want, and to melt down the metal to extract it on its own.
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Emma Trantham answered on 2 Jul 2012:
As Mike said, gold and silver were discovered rather than invented.
We discovered them by finding them in rocks.
A long time ago there were people called alchemists who thought it was possible to make gold but they never managed it!
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