They say that 65% ("They" being Consolidated Gold Fields who are known to keep figures) of the new demand for gold is for jewelry. I have never seen the figure of 80% that is described. It can vary widely from year to year however. Increases in one year of 80% of the previous year's usage in total tonnes used by the jewelry trade is not that uncommon. Strangely, a rising price of Gold seems to accompany increased the demand for jewelry.
This demand however has been a constant one for centuries with no signs of abating. When prices are low, jewellers can defray one of their expenses, whereas the jewelry price is somewhat more constant. Whereas in developed countried mark up on jewelry is near 300%, while in undeveloped countries it is perhaps 1/10 of this per cent. So GP it is not as big an issue it would seem in the G7 countries as far as jewelry goes.
Few metals can take the place of gold for this use, as it is inert and its beauty is superior and more lasting than any substitute. It has a much superior look and feel, does not corrode, creates no allergenic reactions and is much easier to alloy and work than other metals.
For these reasons it is highly unlikely that its use will fade. And to think that it will suddenly go out of style with women or men is perhaps naive too.
There has been a push on in electronics it would seem to lessen its useage in circuit boards. I am not sure of the reason for this but it seems to be bad economics where reliability is needed, as there are no really reliable substitutes.
Every junk motherboard I have is one of those that use the Celeron, where they went to some cheap, softer alloy for the ram sockets (Ag alloy?) and, sure enough, the ram would not contact after a while, due to physical damage to the socket. This is not the alloy's fault entirely here but just goes to show that cheaper is not necessarily gooder. Kingston Ram still uses gold contacts I note.
Much of the Anti-Gold flack, or fear, seems to emanate from the thinking that it is a metal with frivolous useage, therefore it can be obsoleted or will pass from favour. Let me point out that while you may be able to look ahead ten thousand years and say that, I doubt that if you really do think of its uses that far ahead, it is more probable that you will discover MORE uses for Gold, not fewer!
What would you make a cyano-babilate blooferganger-matrix out of, if you lived on a remote Space Colony with a band of Multi-Headed Vacu-Vixen from the Planet Froon? Failure of the Hyper Drive to triangulate in those circumstances would render your Tricorder superfluous in jig time. It is obvious that in this case that Gold is the only answer. Worth its weight in Gold-pressed Latinum many times over.
If everybody reading silicon investor bought just 1/50 of an ounce a day of gold, forgoing 2 Tuborgs a day to do this, we could increase the buying pressure on gold by 85 tonnes per year! It would definitely drive the price up substantially, thereby making it a good investment by the investing.
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