Gold Rush Today – Salesman’s profit, Nature’s disprofit

In human’s history gold trade always was a good stroke of business. And today the demand for gold is pretty high, too.
It’s mainly needed for producing jewellery (at this time 2400 tons) for the West and particularly for India, which has an old tradition in using gold for its wedding receptions and religious practices. Furthermore many private persons have an investment in gold nuggets (235 tons) and it is processed in several branches of industry (460 tons). Especially the fear of financial crises and the appeal of jewellery itself increases people’s desire for gold.
In 2007 gold amounting to 42 billion euro was traded all over the world; it’s a new record. But where does it come from?
In former times there were 160 kilometre long veins of gold in South Africa and nuggets as big as cherries in California. These times are gone. Today only teeny-weeny nuggets can be found. But also if you search a lot, you may find nothing after all. One bad consequence of that is that you leave a big irreparable hole in the earth. And if you find gold in fact you have to dip it into quicksilver which is venomous for people, for animals, for plants and in general for the whole environment. Then the gold-quicksilver-complex must be burned so that only the pure gold is left, mostly a few grams. To dump the used-up quicksilver labourers tilt it into rivers for example.
But why destroy people the environment, our mother earth, for a few grams of gold? They do it because the mined gold isn’t enough for the world’s population. One well-off husband likes to impress his wife with jewellery, someone who collects coins buys a gold coin each year for example, millionaires or share holders want to hedge against inflation and an Indian woman gets married, it’s all the same all around the world.
Bosses came to countries like Ghana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Indonesia or Peru to make money and destroy the rainforest and rip the indigenous people. They earn approximately 3.9 million euro in one year by selling 200 kilogram gold in this time. But in spite of everything the natives become poor.
In one country of the world people hoard 18 thousand tons of gold, more than the 40-times of the central bank of this state. There is no other country where gold is so strong connected with the culture and no country which has bought circa 20 percent of the world’s bullion market (774 tons) in 2007. It is incredible India where gold is needed for 10 million weddings each year and where the annual average income is about 2100 euro. That’s just the way it is.
Finally there still are two very important facts about gold: 161.000 tons have been raised by now (even enough to fill two Olympic swimming pools) and one gram costs 22.16 euro at the moment. A bright future!

Patrick