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. In Space Age, you'll also be able to craft casting catalysts from gold, which can be refined into high quality and then used in the foundry to cast higher quality items.

This mod takes inspiration (and some code and assets) from Noble Metals by brevven and cackling.fiend, but it is rather different in execution and is ultimately not compatible. It also takes inspiration from Them Thar Hills by planetfall, and is compatible with Them Thar Hills Legacy.

Lignumis by cackling.fiend is supported, but has not been extensively tested so there may be minor issues.

Scrappy Industry, Scrappy Chemistry and Crushing Industry by SafTheLamb are all well supported, as are my own mods Voidcraft and Bluetonium.