Proto board with gold plated contacts

[JerryG]

I saw some protoboards at fry that say "gold plated" on them. Can these contacts be soldered to? It doesn't seem like solder would be able to bond with gold plating, but if not, what good is the protoboard?

 

[mdjensen22]

The gold is used to prevent oxidization/corrosion on the contacts prior to soldering.
This is a standard practice in electronics. Those boards will be fine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_plating#Electronics