What artificial material can replace gold in electronics?
But synthetic diamonds are already in place to make such things as drilling cheaper than using natural ones.
I cannot see why gold cannot be replaced at some point.
1 Like
Interesting, thanks for the link
I reddit a lot, and this is probably the best (informative, friendly) thread about gold I’ve read.
3 Likes
Interesting stretch into chemistry here rather than investment subjects proper but big difference I think would be gold’s lack of reactivity - which is what makes it useful for electronics.
Highly non-reactive metal elements tend to be fairly rare and synthesising a new (non-reactive) element is a lot harder than applying the pressure to turn carbon into diamonds.
Not (necessarily) impossible, but technologically a different beast.
4 Likes
I surrender to you due to lack of chemistry knowledge in comparison.
But help me on this one: Who could think of in-App investing in stocks for free in 2003? 15 years is a drop in the ocean when talking about technological advancement. I believe there is scope for very many things in theory, even those that have been around for decades/centuries.
1 Like
Interesting stretch into chemistry here rather than investment subjects proper but big difference I think would be gold’s lack of reactivity - which is what makes it useful for electronics.
This is actually slowly becoming a myth. Gold in certain conditions can be very reactive when you need it to be. I’m a recent chemistry graduate (and future PhD student who will be researching ways to recover gold and the like from waste electronics funnily enough) who used gold catalysts to develop a method for the synthesis of certain compounds. A potentially useful method for pharma companies when it comes to purity. I can’t speak for why it is useful in electronics, although your thought process is likely correct - its relative inertness.
However I concede that the amount of gold used for these processes would most likely fall under the white/light gray piece of that pie chart above… 
Indeed. I was told by an academic recently that a tonne of electronic waste will contain around 30x more gold than a tonne of gold ore. And with the trend of switching mobile phones and other consumer electronics every other year or so, urban mining looks set to be a very lucrative industry.
8 Likes
Any urban mining startups on Crowdcube? 
1 Like
If the PhD goes really well, watch this space!! 
5 Likes
I did have some exposure to Gold and silver through shares in Wheaton Precious metals, but I recently sold them and bought a 50 year old truck, alternative investments FTW
I may buy the wheaton Shares back at some point, they seem to have a good business model, and I did make a profit as well as regular (but not particularly big) dividends
3 Likes
What did you buy @dave?
2 Likes
1967 Chevy El Camino
5 Likes