Is gold a mineral?
Yes. Native gold, Au, is an IMA mineral: cubic, hardness 2.5 to 3, density 19.3. Electrum is gold with over 20% silver. A refined gold bar is not a mineral.
Yes. Native gold is a mineral: the element Au, cubic, hardness 2.5 to 3, density 19.3, with its own row on the September 2026 IMA list. Of 43 IMA entries with Au in the formula, it is the only one written Au alone. Refined bars and jewellery alloys, made by people, are not minerals.
In short
- The element clause. Approved by the IMA commission, the IMA commission’s 1995 definition of a mineral opens: in general terms, a mineral is an element or chemical compound that is normally crystalline and which has been formed as a result of geological processes. Native gold is an element, crystalline (the Handbook of Mineralogy sheet gives cubic, space group Fm3m) and formed in veins, pegmatites and placers. It passes on the first word.
- The Au-alone rule. A row parser over the September 2026 IMA-CNMNC Master List, cross-checked by an independent scan of every line’s formula field, finds 43 entries with Au in the formula. Gold is the only one written Au alone. The rest are compounds or alloys: tellurides such as calaverite AuTe2 (43.56% gold by mass) and sylvanite AgAuTe4 (24.16%), and the copper–gold auricupride Cu3Au (50.82%).
- The 800 line. USGS Circular 612 lists electrum as a variety of gold, argentian gold with more than 20 percent silver, and defines fineness as 1,000 × Au/(Au + Ag). In a gold–silver alloy with nothing else, more than 20% silver means below 800 fine. Native gold, it says, commonly contains 10 to 15 percent silver: 850 to 900 fine. The IMA list has no electrum line, so electrum is gold, not a separate species.
- Worked on the sheet. The Handbook’s analysis from Porthcurnick Beach, Cornwall, England, by electron microprobe, is Au 99.6, Ag 0.1, Cu 0.1. Fineness = 1,000 × 99.6 / 99.7 = 999.0. Circular 612 quotes Mertie (1940) that pure gold has not been found in nature, the purest he reported being 999.1 fine, from the Great Boulder mine, Kalgoorlie.
- Where the answer changes. The 1995 definition says anthropogenic substances, those produced by people, are not minerals. A cast bar or a jewellery alloy is a product, not a mineral specimen; a nugget from a placer is the mineral. Gold inside another mineral is a separate case: Circular 612 says gold in sulphides occurs largely, if not entirely, as the free metal.
| Name | Formula (IMA) | IMA status | Gold by mass | Hardness | Density | Tenacity (sheet) | Native gold? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gold | Au | G | 100% (sheet analysis Au 99.6) | 2.5 to 3 | 19.3 | Very malleable and ductile | Yes |
| Electrum | (Au,Ag) (Circular 612) | No line on the list | Under 80% in a gold–silver alloy (more than 20% Ag) | No sheet | Below 19.3: decreases with silver (Circular 612) | No sheet | Yes: a variety of gold |
| Silver | Ag | G | 0% | 2.5 to 3 | 10.1 to 11.1; 10.5 pure | Ductile, malleable | No: forms a series with gold |
| Auricupride | Cu3Au | G, 1950, Russia | 50.82% | About 3.5 | 11.5 | Not printed | No: a copper–gold compound |
| Calaverite | AuTe2 | G, 1868, USA | 43.56% | 2.5 to 3 | 9.10 to 9.40 | Brittle | No: a gold telluride |
| Krennerite | Au3AgTe8; Handbook (Au,Ag)Te2 | G, 1877, Romania | 34.36% | 2 to 3 | 8.62 | Brittle | No: a gold telluride |
| Petzite | Ag3AuTe2 | G, 1845, Romania | 25.39% | 2.5 to 3 | 8.7 to 9.4 | Slightly sectile to brittle | No: a silver–gold telluride |
| Sylvanite | AgAuTe4; Handbook (Au,Ag)2Te4 | G, 1835, Romania | 24.16% | 1.5 to 2 | 8.16 | Brittle | No: a gold telluride |
| Pyrite | FeS2 | G | 0% in the formula | 6 to 6.5 | 5.018 | Brittle | No: fool’s gold |
| Refined bar, jewellery alloy | - | Not a mineral | Varies | - | - | - | No: made by people |
Is gold a mineral? Yes, by the element clause
Native gold is a mineral: the chemical element gold, crystallised by geological processes. Nickel 1995, Definition of a mineral (Mineralogical Magazine 59, 767), published with the approval of the IMA commission, says that in general terms a mineral is an element or chemical compound that is normally crystalline and which has been formed as a result of geological processes. The Handbook of Mineralogy gold sheet gives Au, cubic, point group 4/m 3 2/m, as octahedra, dodecahedra and cubes, typically crude or rounded, to about 5 cm, and as reticulated, dendritic, platy and wire forms, nuggets, scales and flakes. Twinning is common on {111}.
What the IMA list and the classifications record. The September 2026 IMA list gives gold, Au, status G, grandfathered: a mineral known before the IMA existed and generally considered valid; the year and country columns read ? and unknown. The webmineral gold page places it in Dana class 01.01.01.01, native elements, in a gold group with silver, native copper, lead and aluminium, and in Strunz 01.AA.05, metals and intermetallic alloys. The clause-by-clause test used for quartz is on is quartz a mineral; this page uses the IMA commission’s own wording instead.
Is gold a metal or a mineral? Both, as a native element. The sheet’s name note calls gold an Old English word for the metal. The mineral is the natural crystalline material; the metal is the element, whether in a nugget or a ring. is diamond a mineral asks the same question of another native element, and crystal vs mineral sets out the wider terms.
Which minerals contain gold? The Au-alone rule
43 entries on the IMA list contain gold, and only one is written Au alone. Method: the September 2026 list was converted with pdftotext -layout; a row parser split each line into name, formula and status, and an independent scan took the second field of every line split on runs of two or more spaces. Both were searched for the element symbol Au. The parser found 41 rows, the field scan 43 lines, and the union is 43 entries; nagyágite and gachingite, whose formulas contain spaces, were found only by the field scan. As a positive control, calaverite, sylvanite, krennerite, petzite and auricupride were all found. Of the 43, only gold has the formula Au.
The tellurides. The gold sheet’s association line names sylvanite, krennerite and calaverite. Worked from the IMA formulas, calaverite AuTe2 is 43.56% gold by mass, krennerite Au3AgTe8 34.36%, petzite Ag3AuTe2 25.39% and sylvanite AgAuTe4 24.16%. Their sheets give them densities of 8.16 to 9.40, under half of gold’s 19.3, and calaverite, krennerite and sylvanite are recorded as brittle where gold is very malleable and ductile. They contain gold; they are not gold.
The alloys with their own rows. Auricupride, Cu3Au, is a separate species, 50.82% gold by mass, hardness about 3.5, density 11.5 on its sheet; tetra-auricupride, CuAu, has its own row as well. The list also carries weishanite, written (Au,Ag,Hg), IMA 1982-076, China: gold with silver and mercury that is its own species. Copper and silver themselves are native elements with rows and sheets of their own.
Is electrum gold? The 800 line
Electrum is gold: a silver-rich variety, not a separate mineral. Jones and Fleischer, Gold in minerals and the composition of native gold (USGS Circular 612, 1969) lists electrum under the varieties of gold, as argentian gold with more than 20 percent silver. It says gold forms a complete series of solid solutions with silver and commonly contains 10 to 15 percent silver, and that its specific gravity of 19.3 for pure gold decreases with increasing silver. The gold and silver sheets each say the two form a series. A case-insensitive scan of the IMA list finds 0 lines containing electrum.
The 800 line, worked. Circular 612 defines fineness as 1,000 times Au/(Au + Ag). In a gold–silver alloy with nothing else, 20 percent silver is 800 fine, so electrum is native gold below 800 fine; 10 to 15 percent silver is 850 to 900 fine. The Handbook’s Porthcurnick Beach analysis, Au 99.6 and Ag 0.1, gives 1,000 × 99.6 / 99.7 = 999.0. Substitute your own analysis’s gold and silver figures in the same division. This is arithmetic on a published analysis, not an assay method.
Colour follows silver. The Handbook gives gold-yellow with a reddish tint when pure, silver-white to copper-red when impure. Circular 612 cites Eales (1961): nearly pure gold has a golden colour with a ruby tint in polished section, turning yellow and then pale silvery yellow, as in electrum, with increasing silver. It also quotes Mertie (1940) that pure gold has not been found in nature and that fineness is rarely less than 600.
When the answer changes: bars, jewellery and gold inside other minerals
Refined and manufactured gold is not a mineral. The 1995 definition says anthropogenic substances, those produced by people, are not regarded as minerals, and that one identical to a mineral can be called a synthetic equivalent. A placer nugget or a crystal on quartz is native gold; a cast bar, a coin or a jewellery alloy is a product made from it. This page gives no value, price or assay advice.
Gold you cannot see. Circular 612 says gold occurs in nature mainly as the metal and as alloys, especially with silver, and as intermetallic compounds, and that gold in sulphide minerals is largely, if not entirely, the free metal. The gold sheet calls it widespread in very small quantities in rocks of many kinds and in sea water, and common in placers. Gold-bearing pyrite is pyrite with gold in it, not a gold mineral; telling the two apart is on what is fool’s gold and how to tell if pyrite is real.
Where the sheet points. The Distribution field names the eastern slope of the Urals, Siberia; Roşia Montană and Săcărîmb, Romania, for sharp crystals; Bendigo, Ballarat and Kalgoorlie, Australia; the Witwatersrand, South Africa, which it calls the world’s most important gold district but which only rarely produces crystalline material; the Mother Lode belt, California; and Santa Elena, Venezuela, for skeletal crystals. The classification questions are indexed at the collecting guides. Nothing on this site is offered for sale; the wanted list is the only commercial route.