Gold prices have risen steadily for a long time, partly because of its use in electronics. Over $2500/ounce now. But another quirk of gold is the ease with which we can make very thin coatings of it over other materials, sometimes only a few atoms thick. So it is commonly used, but in very very small amounts per device.
If someone works out how to make gold cheap. Then the current value of all gold will collapse and there were be a huge supply of shit that’s been covered in dust in a vault for 100 years.
Very true. Unfortunately, this process just pulls gold from dilute sources and gathers it into nuggets, from small ones to very very large. No gold is being made new though, that would be great.
The main reason to electroplate things in gold is that corrosion resistance.
The thinner the coating, the better. Mostly because gold isn’t a very good conductor.
Copper is one of the best conductors available. But the corrosion is the problem. It’s nonconductive.
Also a fun fact. Stainless steel is a better conductor than gold. But gold is slightly easier to use in electroplating.
I think you might want to do a little digging in your undergrad science books:
The units of electrical conductivity are measured in siemens per meter (S/m). Here’s the electrical conductivity of a few metals:
Stainless Steel: 1.0 - 1.5 × 10^6 S/m
Aluminum: 3.77 × 10^7 S/m
Copper: 5.96 × 10^7 S/m
Gold: 4.52 × 10^7 S/m
Silver: 6.30 × 10^7 S/m
In this list silver has the highest conductivity, and stainless steel the lowest conductivity.
Most of the gold’s price comes from it being used in jewelry and as an investment. Less than 7% of gold is used by the tech industry
https://www.statista.com/statistics/299609/gold-demand-by-industry-sector-share/
Well, that is the amount gold that is mined or recycled every year that is used in electronics. The thing is though, a lot of the gold used in electronics is never recovered. So a considerable amount of the gold used in electronics is removed from from circulation in a way the gold in jewelry or bullion or coins isn’t. It isn’t the primary driver of gold’s price increase, but it is a significant factor.
