I *may* be the only person on FR who found this fascinating. Probably an application to asteroid mining in there somewhere, eh? When the platinum metals were discovered and isolated, the silversmiths figured out that doping the hot metal with arsenic allowed them to sculpt or build up a work of art (solid platinum metals) by adding soft bits. The trick was, don't inhale the smoke.
I’m reminded of the Friday swimming days when all the students of my class in the last year of primary school, would troop down to the river and change into a bathing suit behind the blackberry bushes...girls on one side, boys on the other, and jump into the swimming hole by the willows. There, glistening in the sunlight, the flecks of fools gold flowed by in the current and ran between our fingers.
Should we have been looking for gold somewhere upstream?
I find your article fascinating. I also find it fascinating that most gold and other heavy metals are created by neutron star collisions.
https://www.livescience.com/60701-ligo-neutron-stars-heavy-metals-gold.html