The Really Useful Gold Thread

All eyes,
Many here watch Gold for signals of when to invest in Gold shares.

The shares are geared, and you get a bigger bang for your buck.

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On the size of the global Gold resource, this may interest some

CHEMICAL COMPOSITION: . . . . . . SHARE OF TOTAL VALUE
of the Earth's Crust: . . . . . . of Mined Production*
===================== . . . . . . ====================
Zinc-- .. 0.0081% ... . . . . . . Metals---------- 35%
Copper .. 0.0050% ... . . . . . . Coal------------ 33%
Lead-- .. 0.0013% ... . . . . . . Aggregates------ 10%
Tin--- .. 0.00016000% . . . . . . Industrial min'ls 9%
Silver .. 0.00000650% . . . . . . Diamonds--------- 3%
Gold-- .. 0.00000035% . . . . . . *recent averages
per:Billiton Minerals

per: "The Ultimate Gold stock trader", 2005 PBS Publishing

Copper:
The rate of copper mined grew from:
1900 : 0.5 Mn.t /year
1999 : 12. Mn.t /year : 24 times
Gold:
1900 : . 400 t. /year = 12.9mn oz.
1999 : 2,500 t. /year = 80.4mn oz. : 6.2 times

Already identified ore reserves:
Bauxite : 200 years of production
Copper- : 30 years
Gold--- : 20 years
Potash Corp : 200 years ... is a rare exception
of companies that have identified more than 10-20 years
of reserves for its mining activities
Most Gold miners have less than 15-20 years of reserves