Final answer:
The bond in question is a metallic bond involving a 'cloud of negative mobile valence electrons.' While covalent bonds involve shared electrons between nonmetal atoms, metallic bonds feature electrons shared among a metal's positive ions, differentiating it from covalent bonding.
Step-by-step explanation:
The type of bond being described is a metallic bond, not a covalent bond. In a metallic bond, the electrons are shared by all the atoms that make up a metal object and can be thought of as a 'cloud of negative mobile valence electrons' surrounding 'positive cores,' which are the metal cations. The metallic bond is responsible for many of the characteristic properties of metals, such as electrical conductivity, malleability, and ductility.
While both covalent bonds and metallic bonds involve the sharing of electrons, covalent bonding occurs when two nonmetal atoms share electrons to fill their valence shells and form a molecule. The electrostatic attraction between the positively charged nuclei of bonded atoms and the negatively charged electrons they share characterizes a covalent bond. When the bond is between similar atoms, the covalent bond can be nonpolar, with electrons shared equally, but polar covalent bonds can also form when atoms of different electronegativities share electrons unequally.