Industrial Gold / Electronics
Also: Technology gold, Electronics gold, Industrial gold
Industrial gold refers to gold used in technical applications – particularly the electronics industry – rather than for investment or jewellery purposes.
Gold is commonly regarded as an investment and jewellery metal – yet around 7 to 8 percent of global gold demand comes from technical applications. Of these, the electronics industry is dominant, exploiting the metal's unique physical properties: outstanding electrical conductivity, absolute corrosion resistance, and virtually unlimited ductility. The current gold price is a key factor in how intensively manufacturers search for substitutes or rely on recycling.
Why gold in electronics?
Gold does not oxidise even under extreme conditions, forms no insulating surface layer, and thus ensures permanently reliable electrical contacts – a property no other economically available metal can match. The most important application areas at a glance:
| Application | Form | Typical gold content |
|---|---|---|
| Circuit boards / PCB | Electroplated gold coating (contact pads) | 0.05–2 µm layer thickness |
| Bond wire (chip connection) | Ultra-fine wire 99.99 % Au | 15–50 µm wire diameter |
| Connectors / contacts | Electroplating or clad material | 0.1–5 µm |
| Semiconductor packaging | Solder alloys (Au-Sn, Au-Ge) | 80 % Au in special alloys |
| Infrared reflectors / sensors | Vapour deposition, sputtering | Microgram range |
Bond wire – the most important individual segment
The gold bond wire connects the integrated circuit (die) to the package frame. It must be extremely thin (from 15 µm), highly pure (999.9), and mechanically stable. Although the industry has increasingly switched to cheaper copper and silver bond wires since the 2010s, gold remains the standard in high-reliability applications (automotive, medical technology, aerospace) – wherever failures are not an option.
Electroplated gold coating (ENIG / HASL-Au)
On circuit boards, gold is most commonly applied as Electroless Nickel Immersion Gold (ENIG): an ultra-thin gold layer (approx. 0.05–0.12 µm) over a nickel barrier protects solder contact pads from oxidation and ensures good solderability. The amount of gold per board is tiny – but in the aggregate across billions of circuit boards worldwide, it is considerable.
Urban mining: recovery from electronic scrap
Since the quantities of gold used per device are small, recovery only pays off on an industrial scale. Nevertheless, a tonne of waste circuit boards is estimated to contain 200 to 400 grams of gold – considerably more than a tonne of average gold ore (typically 1–5 g/t). This makes recycling from electronic scrap (urban mining) a significant secondary supplier.
Melt value of electronic scrap (simplified):
Gold quantity [g] × current gold price [$/g] = metal value [$]
→ Calculator: /en/calculator/melt-value/
The melt value can be calculated online once the gold content of the scrap is known – for example from an assay report from the refinery.
Palladium and platinum group metals as companions
In addition to gold, palladium and other platinum group metals also play an important role in electronics: palladium is found in multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs), which are built into virtually every electronic device. The price movements of both metals are therefore closely linked to global electronics production.
Price influence and substitution effect
When the gold price rises sharply, manufacturers intensify the search for alternatives (copper or silver bond wire, thinner layers) or reduce the gold content in alloys. This substitution pressure dampens industrial demand and distinguishes it from investment demand, which tends to increase at higher prices. The historical price history illustrates how pronounced this effect was during high-price phases (e.g. 2011–2012, 2020).
In brief
Industrial gold in electronics is a small but technically indispensable segment of the gold market. The combination of corrosion resistance, conductivity, and processability makes gold the first choice wherever reliability is more important than material costs. Through scrap gold recycling and urban mining, a growing proportion of processed electronic gold is returned to the cycle.