Gold

Gold has been used as a haven of wealth for over 3,000 years. Why? Because gold is very rare (very scarce) and will continue to be, since it is increasingly difficult to find and to mine. Gold is six times as rare as platinum and 18 times as rare as silver. Gold is also almost impossible to destroy. Neither oxygen nor hydrogen sulfide deteriorate gold and therefore it does not rust. Nor does it tarnish or rot. The melting point of gold is 1063 degrees Celsius. The only way to dissolve gold is to use cyanide. After mining gold for thirty centuries, new deposits are increasingly difficult to find. South Africa, one of the main gold producers, has experienced a 50% cut in gold production in the last decade. Since 2008, the cost of mining an ounce of gold has doubled for North American gold miners. The inflation rate for the total costs of gold miners reached 27% last year. However, the amount of gold that exists on earth grows at a rate of 1.6% per year.