Gold has been known since prehistoric times and was one of the first metals to be worked, mainly

because it was to
be found as nuggets or as particles in the beds of streams. Such was the demand that by 2000 BC the Egyptians
began mining gold. The death mask of Tutankhamen, who died in 1323 BC, contained 100 kg of the metal. The royal
graves of ancient Ur (modern Iraq), which flourished from 3800 to 2000 BC, also contained gold objects.

The minting of gold coins began around 640 BC in the Kingdom of Lydia (situated in what is now modern Turkey)
using electrum, a native alloy of gold and silver. The first pure gold coins were minted in the reign of King Croesus,
who ruled from 561–547 BC.

Slag heaps near ancient mine workings in Turkey and Greece prove that silver mining started around 3000 BC. The
metal was refined by cupellation, a process invented by the Chaldeans, who lived in what is now southern Iraq. It
consisted of heating the molten metal in a shallow cup over which blew a strong draft of air. This oxidised the other
metals, such as lead and copper, leaving only silver unaffected.

The rise of Athens was made possible partly through the exploitation of local silver mines at Laurium. These operated
from 600 BC and right through the Roman era. In Medieval times, German mines became the main source of silver in
Europe.

Silver was also mined by the ancient civilizations of Central and South America there being rich deposits in Peru,
Bolivia and Mexico.
Probably the oldest worked specimen of platinum is that from an ancient Egyptian casket of the 7 th century BC,
unearthed at Thebes and dedicated to Queen Shapenapit. Otherwise this metal was unknown in Europe and Asia for
the next two millennia, although on the Pacific coast of South America, there were people able to work platinum, as
shown by burial goods dating back 2000 years.

In 1557 an Italian scholar, Julius Scaliger, wrote of a metal from Spanish Central America that could not be made to
melt and was no doubt platinum. Then, in 1735, Antonio Ulloa encountered this curious metal, but as he returned to
Europe his ship was captured by the Royal Navy and he ended up in London. There, members of the Royal Society
were most interested to hear about the new metal, and by the 1750s, platinum was being reported and discussed
throughout Europe.

Palladium is a chemical element with the symbol Pd and atomic number 46. It is a rare and lustrous
silvery-white metal discovered in 1803 by William Hyde Wollaston. He named it after the asteroid
Pallas, which was itself named after the epithet of the Greek goddess Athena, acquired by her when
she slew Pallas. Palladium, platinum, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium and osmium form a group of
elements referred to as the platinum group metals (PGMs). These have similar chemical properties,
but palladium has the lowest melting point and is the least dense of them.
Osmium (from Greek ὀσμή osme, "smell") is a chemical element with the symbol Os and atomic
number 76. It is a hard, brittle, bluish-white transition metal in the platinum group that is found as
a trace element in alloys, mostly in platinum ores. Osmium is the densest naturally occurring
element, with an experimentally measured (using x-ray crystallography) density of 22.59 g/cm3.
Manufacturers use its alloys with platinum, iridium, and other platinum-group metals to
make fountain pen nib tipping, electrical contacts, and in other applications that require extreme
durability and hardness.[3] The element's abundance in the Earth's crust is among the rarest.[4][5]

Molybdenum is a chemical element with the symbol Mo and atomic number 42. The name is
from Neo-Latin molybdaenum, from Ancient Greek Μόλυβδος molybdos, meaning lead, since its
ores were confused with lead ores.[7] Molybdenum minerals have been known throughout history, but
the element was discovered (in the sense of differentiating it as a new entity from the mineral salts of
other metals) in 1778 by Carl Wilhelm Scheele. The metal was first isolated in 1781 by Peter Jacob
Hjelm.[8]
titanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. It is a lustrous transition
metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength. Titanium is resistant to corrosion in sea
water, aqua regia, and chlorine.

Vanadium is a chemical element with the symbol V and atomic number 23. It is a hard, silvery-
grey, ductile, malleable transition metal. The elemental metal is rarely found in nature, but once
isolated artificially, the formation of an oxide layer (passivation) somewhat stabilizes the free metal
against further oxidation.