Gold element silver (as electrum) and also naturally alloyed with copper and palladium. Less commonly, it occurs in minerals as gold compounds, often with tellurium (gold tellurides). Gold is resistant to most acids, though it does dissolve in aqua regia, a mixture of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid, which forms a soluble tetrachloroaurate anion. Gold is insoluble in nitric acid, which dissolves silver and base metals, a property that has long been used to refine gold and to confirm the presence of gold in metallic objects, giving rise to the term "acid test". Gold also dissolves in alkaline solutions of cyanide,
Phosphorous acid concentrating the solution and precipitations with alcohols, the pure acid can be separated from the salt. Phosphorous acid is a strong acid with a p"K" in the range 1.26–1.3. It is a diprotic acid, the hydrogenphosphite ion, HP(O)(OH) is a moderately strong acid: The conjugate base HP(O)(OH) is called hydrogen phosphite, and the second conjugate base, , is the phosphite ion. (Note that the IUPAC recommendations are hydrogen phosphonate and phosphonate respectively). The hydrogen atom bonded directly to the phosphorus atom is not readily ionizable. Chemistry examinations often test students' appreciation of the fact that "not" all three hydrogen atoms