All that glitters is not gold... sometimes it's copper. Or stone I guess? Maybe it's hydrogen cyanide.
Gold allows you to get high-quality electronic components and modules without endless recycling. To mine gold, first you'll need to find some gold ore, of course. Then you'll need to make hydrogen cyanide, which has other (optional) uses as well. Mined gold ore goes to a chemical plant, where sulfuric acid separates out gold dust from other impurities, and you then smelt the gold dust into gold bars. The gold is then used in a variety of recipes to make superior versions of some items, which are put into the new autosorter, where they are turned back into the standard versions with a +50% quality bonus.
This mod takes inspiration (and some code and assets) from Noble Metals by brevven and cackling.fiend, and Them Thar Hills by planetfall, but it is rather different in execution and is ultimately not compatible with either mod.
Scrappy Industry, Scrappy Chemistry and Crushing Industry by SafTheLamb are all supported, as are my own mods Voidcraft and Bluetonium.