I believe they're material. I've not gotten my mining up high enough to use them, though.
You can use gold chains to craft the Fluorescent Amulet (another recipe), which you can then equip the amulet to one of your wolves that are campaigning and then from there you have a chance to stumble upon the rare "Consumed Kapros" encounter in Murkwood. This encounter is a battle and consumes your amulet, but upon winning you receive a companion drop.
This might have already been asked.. If you play another location's campaigne, does that effect your chosen home location?? For instance, I joined in Darkspine, if I play in another location, that won't effect what pack I'm part of, in any way, right? The "joining" thing is confusing.
Also, are there any plans on adding level locations for the professions? Like right now, fishing has level 1 and the next location doesn't unlock until level 12... It's a pretty big gap, imo... For someone who likes to have frequent milepost accomplishments, it is a HUGE gap and kind of discouraging. And it's not just in the fishing profession either.
Are there any apparel drops? Any plans on adding some??