A well-known example of a wet-chemical process is the use of nitric acid, also called separating water. Nitric acid is able to dissolve most base metals such as copper, iron and zinc. Precious metals such as gold are not dissolved. This property allows, for example, the gold content in jewellery alloys to be separated and determined by weighing (gravimetric gold determination). Dissolved precious metals, such as silver, can in turn be precipitated with certain chemicals due to their chemical properties and can also be weighed.