3 ms·

pure gold does exist in nature, pure aluminum not so much

Dylan16807 3y ago
Right, that's exactly why aluminum had such a wild swing in value. Gold is not hard to extract, so that won't happen with it. Instead it's hard to get in any form, so people can dig out more but the cost of extraction keeps increasing.
- sambazi 3y ago
  > the cost of extraction keeps increasing seems logical given the diminishing supply, suggesting some "peak gold". is it rooted in fact thou? you know, could be that humanity just hasn't found as much and is underestimating the remaining quantity.
  - Dylan16807 3y ago
    It's possible we could find some very easy deposits, but it's very unlikely they'd be enough to crash the price, and even less likely to permanently crater the price.
  - defrost 3y ago
    It's a fact, from the first large scale Rio Tinto mines in Roman times that used hydralic washing (redirected rivers) to todays mega super pits, the total resource requirements per unit gold have climbed. Today you can see this (subject to access | subscription) in industry Production All-in Sustaining Cost (AISC) Data People write essays such as: https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2014/06/28/under-the-microscope-the-true-costs-of-gold-production/ https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2014/06/28/under-the-micros... and articles such as: https://www.xetra-gold.com/en/gold-news/news/gold-production-costs-at-all-time-high/ https://www.xetra-gold.com/en/gold-news/news/gold-production... You can see decade long snapshots such as: https://www.gold.org/goldhub/gold-focus/2023/04/gold-miners-costs-reached-record-high-2022-dropped-final-quarter-year https://www.gold.org/goldhub/gold-focus/2023/04/gold-miners-... which might convince you that gold is somehow cyclically hard to recover and the cost per unit ebbs and flows .. but the long term (50 year, 100 year) truth is that gold becomes increasingly more resource intensive to extract. Which makes sense when you consider that it no longer just lies about on the surface in the same frequency as it once did (yes, you can still find surface nuggets .. but they are fewer and fewer).

Right, that's exactly why aluminum had such a wild swing in value. Gold is not hard to extract, so that won't happen with it. Instead it's hard to get in any form, so people can dig out more but the cost of extraction keeps increasing.

sambazi 3y ago
> the cost of extraction keeps increasing seems logical given the diminishing supply, suggesting some "peak gold". is it rooted in fact thou? you know, could be that humanity just hasn't found as much and is underestimating the remaining quantity.
- Dylan16807 3y ago
  It's possible we could find some very easy deposits, but it's very unlikely they'd be enough to crash the price, and even less likely to permanently crater the price.
- defrost 3y ago
  It's a fact, from the first large scale Rio Tinto mines in Roman times that used hydralic washing (redirected rivers) to todays mega super pits, the total resource requirements per unit gold have climbed. Today you can see this (subject to access | subscription) in industry Production All-in Sustaining Cost (AISC) Data People write essays such as: https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2014/06/28/under-the-microscope-the-true-costs-of-gold-production/ https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2014/06/28/under-the-micros... and articles such as: https://www.xetra-gold.com/en/gold-news/news/gold-production-costs-at-all-time-high/ https://www.xetra-gold.com/en/gold-news/news/gold-production... You can see decade long snapshots such as: https://www.gold.org/goldhub/gold-focus/2023/04/gold-miners-costs-reached-record-high-2022-dropped-final-quarter-year https://www.gold.org/goldhub/gold-focus/2023/04/gold-miners-... which might convince you that gold is somehow cyclically hard to recover and the cost per unit ebbs and flows .. but the long term (50 year, 100 year) truth is that gold becomes increasingly more resource intensive to extract. Which makes sense when you consider that it no longer just lies about on the surface in the same frequency as it once did (yes, you can still find surface nuggets .. but they are fewer and fewer).