Name: 金價不斷創歷史新高！在瘋買黃金的同時該如何確定你的黃金是真是假？ (How To Find Out If Your Gold is Gold)
Uploaded: 2025-08-02T14:21:16.000Z
Duration: 6 min 44 s

In January 1848, a carpenter in California found some flakes of gold in the waterway supplying the sawmill where he was working.

1848 年 1 月，加州的一位木匠在他工作的鋸木廠的水道中發現了幾塊金子。

It was a lucky find, and before long, thousands of other hopeful prospectors and thieves descended on the area to find their own golden treasure.

這是一次幸運的發現，不久之後，成千上萬滿懷希望的探礦者和盜賊來到這裡，尋找他們自己的黃金寶藏。

轉承詞

Thus began the California Gold Rush, which saw more than 300 tons of gold extracted from the area around the Sacramento River.

加州淘金熱由此拉開帷幕，薩克拉門託河周邊地區共開採出 300 多噸黃金。

While seeking their fortunes, prospecting hopefuls needed to be careful they weren't tricked.

在尋找財富的過程中，探礦者需要小心謹慎，不要上當受騙。

Fool's gold, a shiny yellow metallic mineral called pyrite, was everywhere, and it wasn't worth a dime, especially compared to the gold in them thar hills.

愚人金是一種叫做黃鐵礦的閃亮的黃色金屬礦物，到處都是，但它不值錢，尤其是與山上的金子相比。

But as it turns out, there was another kind of fool's gold out there called chalcopyrite, meaning there were twice as many tricks to watch out for.

但事實證明，還有另一種叫做黃銅礦的愚人金，這意味著需要注意的伎倆要多一倍。

These were the days before fancy chemical tests, so they needed a rough-and-ready field test to tell them they'd gotten the good stuff.

那時候還沒有先進的化學測試，所以他們需要一個粗略的現場測試來證明他們得到的是好東西。

And it turns out that this is the simplest and most effective test.

事實證明，這是最簡單、最有效的測試。

The California Gold Rush ultimately brought about a quarter of a million hopefuls to the area, hoping to strike it rich.

加州淘金熱最終為該地區帶來了約 25 萬希望致富的人。

But gold fever wasn't limited to America.

Around the same time, Australia experienced its own gold rush, and all through the second half of the 19th century, gold hunters flocked to locations in Canada, South Africa, and elsewhere in America at the first whiff of a gold find.

大約在同一時期，澳洲經歷了自己的淘金熱，而在整個 19 世紀下半葉，淘金者一聽到有金礦的消息，就蜂擁而至加拿大、南非和美國其他地方。

Prospectors had to be reactive, because it was hard to predict where the gold would be.

探礦者必須隨機應變，因為很難預測哪裡會有金子。

Gold can be found in lots of different settings, can exist as tiny flakes or giant nuggets, and might show up in streams and lakes, or still be embedded in the rock itself.

黃金可以在許多不同的環境中被發現，可以是微小的薄片，也可以是巨大的金塊，可能出現在溪流和湖泊中，也可能鑲嵌在岩石中。

Part of the problem is how gold gets to the places we find it.

問題的一部分在於黃金是如何到達我們發現它的地方的。

See, gold is first deposited in hydrothermal veins that cut through existing rocks.

你看，黃金首先沉積在切割現有岩石的熱液礦脈中。

But it tends to be in small quantities and really spread out, so it's easy to miss.

但它的數量往往很少，而且非常分散，所以很容易錯過。

But when those veins get weathered and the gold washes out, it gets redeposited in river and lake sediments called placer deposits.

但是，當這些礦脈風化，金子被沖走後，就會重新沉積在河流和湖泊的沉積物中，被稱為「塊狀沉積」。

And here, among modern and ancient sediments, is where you can find amounts of gold that are worth your time.

在這裡，在現代和古代的沉積物中，你可以找到大量的黃金，值得你花時間去尋找。

The thing is, the geological processes that help to concentrate gold into valuable deposits also tend to gather together other minerals, like pyrite and its cousin, chalcopyrite.

問題是，有助於將黃金濃縮成有價值礦藏的地質過程也往往會聚集其他礦物質，如黃鐵礦及其表兄弟黃銅礦。

Chalcopyrite is the fool's gold you've never heard of.

黃銅礦是你從未聽說過的「傻瓜黃金」。

It's similar to pyrite, which has isometric crystals made of iron and sulfur, but it has extra copper in it, which makes these tetragonal crystals that like to grow together into one another.

它類似於黃鐵礦，黃鐵礦的等軸晶由鐵和硫組成，但它含有額外的銅，這使得這些四方晶體喜歡相互生長在一起。

When chalcopyrite reacts with oxygen in the air, it can also turn a bunch of psychedelic colors, from green to peacock purple.

當黃銅礦與空氣中的氧氣發生反應時，它還會變成從綠色到孔雀紫等各種迷幻色彩。

But in its natural, unoxidized state, it's a brassy gold.

但在未氧化的自然狀態下，它是一種黃銅色的金子。

Not only is it gold in color, but it's pretty soft as far as minerals go.

它不僅是金色的，而且就礦物質而言相當柔軟。

You can scratch it with a copper coin, which means it can look about as soft as real gold to the untrained eye.

你可以用銅幣刮它，這意味著在未經訓練的眼睛看來，它和真金一樣柔軟。

Both pyrite and chalcopyrite occur alongside gold in old hydrothermal systems, where metal-rich fluids have flowed through existing rock and left behind their mineral treasure.

黃鐵礦和黃銅礦都與金一起出現在古老的熱液系統中，富含金屬的流體流經現有岩石，留下了礦物寶藏。

It's little wonder that these two fools' golds have wound up confusing optimistic prospectors, like Jacques Cartier.

難怪這兩個傻瓜的金子會迷惑像雅克-卡蒂埃這樣樂觀的探礦者。

Cartier, no relation to the French jewelry guy, was exploring the St. Lawrence River in Canada in the 1540s, when he found what he thought to be gold and diamonds.

卡地亞與這位法國珠寶商沒有任何關係，1540 年代，他在加拿大聖勞倫斯河探險時發現了他認為是黃金和鑽石的東西。

It was only when he got his treasures home to France that he discovered that it was just a bunch of quartz and pyrite.

當他把寶藏帶回法國時，才發現那只是一堆石英和黃鐵礦。

So it goes to show that real people have been actually fooled by these lookalike minerals.

由此可見，真的有人被這些外形相似的礦石所欺騙。

And even during the later gold rushes of the 19th century, prospectors would have needed quick ways of distinguishing trash from treasure in the field.

即使在 19 世紀後期的淘金熱中，探礦者也需要在野外快速辨別垃圾和寶藏。

So in lieu of any fancy geochemical analysis, rock hunters could have used something called a streak test to tell all of their shiny golden minerals apart.

岩石獵人可以用一種叫做條紋測試的方法來區分所有閃閃發光的金色礦物，而不是進行任何花哨的地球化學分析。

All you needed to do was treat your rock like a crayon.

你所需要做的，就是像對待蠟筆一樣對待你的石頭。

Just drag it along an unglazed white ceramic surface, and look at the color of the streak left behind.

只要在未上釉的白色陶瓷表面拖動它，就能看到留下的條紋顏色。

And you might be surprised, because a mineral's streak isn't always the same color as the rest of the crystal.

你可能會大吃一驚，因為礦物條紋的顏色並不總是與晶體的其他部分相同。

That's because the color of a crystal depends as much on geometric structure as it does on the chemistry.

這是因為晶體的顏色既取決於幾何結構，也取決於化學成分。

Minerals like opal and labradorite owe much of their color to the way light bends through their structure.

蛋白石和拉長石等礦物的顏色在很大程度上得益於光線在其結構中的彎曲方式。

And trace contaminants can also throw off the color, too.

For instance, calcite is a mineral that comes in lots of colors, depending on what trace impurities are caught up in the crystal.

例如，方解石是一種有多種顏色的礦物，這取決於晶體中含有哪些微量雜質。

But no matter the color of the whole piece, its streak will always be white.

但是，無論整件作品的顏色如何，它的條紋永遠是白色的。

So doodling with your rock removes the diffraction and contamination factors, meaning that the streak color will be the same no matter what.

用石頭塗鴉可以消除衍射和汙染因素，也就是說，無論如何，條紋的顏色都是一樣的。

Of course, the streak test only works if the mineral is softer than the ceramic tile you're dragging it across, so about a 7 on the Mohs hardness scale.

當然，條紋測試只有在礦物質比你拖過的瓷磚更軟的情況下才會起作用，所以莫氏硬度大約為 7。

If they're not, then all you'd get is a scratch in your tile.

如果不是，那麼你得到的只是瓷磚上的一道劃痕。

And conveniently enough, all kinds of gold, foolish or otherwise, are lower than 7 on the Mohs hardness scale.

方便地說，所有種類的金，不管是愚金還是其他金，莫氏硬度都低於 7。

But even though gold and its lookalikes all have softish, shiny yellow crystals, they have different colored streaks.

不過，儘管黃金及其同類產品都具有柔軟、閃亮的黃色晶體，但它們的條紋顏色卻各不相同。

Gold, fittingly, leaves a golden-yellow streak on the plate.

黃金，恰如其分地在盤子上留下了金黃色的條紋。

On the other hand, pyrite's streak is a greenish, somewhat metallic black.

另一方面，黃鐵礦的條紋呈綠色，有點像金屬黑色。

And as for chalcopyrite, the streak is also greenish-black, just like pyrite.

至於黃銅礦，條紋也是綠黑色的，就像黃鐵礦一樣。

All it takes is a ceramic tile and a pair of good old-fashioned eyeballs.

只需一塊瓷磚和一雙老式的好眼睛。

And while chalcopyrite might not have been what the gold rush prospectors wanted to find, it's not exactly trash, either.

雖然黃銅礦可能不是淘金者想要找到的東西，但它也不完全是垃圾。

Today, it's one of the main ores for all the copper we use in our pipes, wires, and construction.

如今，它是我們在管道、電線和建築中使用的銅的主要礦石之一。

It's also used to make sulfuric acid, which has a role in fertilizers and industrial chemistry.

它還用於製造硫酸，硫酸在化肥和工業化學中發揮作用。

And places like Copperfields Mine in Ontario and Olympic Dam in Australia are now better known for their copper-bearing chalcopyrite than for the gold that's found alongside them.

安大略省的銅礦場和澳洲的奧林匹克大壩等地現在因其含銅的黃銅礦而聞名，而不是因其旁邊的金礦而聞名。

What's even better, Roxbox subscribers get a piece of this beautiful, golden chalcopyrite with its green-black streak right to their door.

更棒的是，Roxbox 的訂戶可以直接送貨上門，獲得這塊美麗的、帶有綠黑條紋的金黃銅礦。

Every month, we pick out a special mineral or fossil with a story to tell, and we send them your way.

每個月，我們都會挑選一種有故事的特殊礦物或化石，寄給你。

If you want to get on the waitlist or peruse our shop for some of our greatest hits from the past, head over to scishow.rocks or click the link in the description.

如果你想加入候補名單，或在我們的商店裡挑選我們過去最受歡迎的作品，請訪問 scishow.rocks 或點擊說明欄中的連結。