Category Archives: SUPPLY

>Gold Uses

Posted on by o2task

>

Gold is an ancient metal of wealth, commerce and beauty, but it also has a number of unique properties that make it invaluable to industy. These properties include:

• Resistance to corrosion
• Electrical conductivity
• Ductility and malleability
• Infrared (heat) reflectivity
• Thermal conductivity

Gold’s superior electrical conductivity, malleability, and resistance to corrosion have made it vital in components used in a wide range of electronic products and equipment, including computers, telephones, cellular phones, and home appliances.
Gold has extraordinarily high reflective powers that are relied upon in the shielding that protects spacecrafts and satellites from solar radiation and in industrial and medical lasers that use gold-coated reflectors to focus light energy. And because gold is biologically inactive, it has become a vital tool for medical research and is even used in the direct treatment of arthritis and other intractable diseases.
The demand for gold in industry is steady and growing. The supply of gold from stored inventory and from mining operations is limited and will remain so. Demand from investors who want to posses this precious metal is steady, and increases during periods of world crises or instability. The result is a market with much more upside potential than down.
Gold is an excellent hedge against inflation, and protects earnings for the future. Modern investors can invest in gold the traditional way — by purchasing gold bullion in the form of bars or coins — or they can trade in gold or gold futures electronically, or by investing in gold mining or refining companies.

Learn More
To learn more about the uses for gold, please visit:
• The Gold Institute
• World Gold Council.

>Precious metals >> Top investment

Posted on by o2task

>

Precious metals were the top performing investment for the second consecutive year during 2010 with their value soaring by 42% as people sought a safe haven from inflation, research indicates.
It is the fourth time in the past five years that precious metals have topped the tables for the best asset class, as continuing uncertainty over the prospects for the global economy caused investors to flock to gold, silver and platinum, according to Lloyds TSB.
The value of precious metals has surged by 365% during the past 10 years, nearly double the increase for the next best performing asset during the same period – residential property, which made a gain of 198%.
The steep increase in precious metal prices seen during 2010 was driven by silver, with its value jumping by 80%, significantly outstripping the 29% rise in the price of gold and the 20% increase for platinum.
The group said the price of silver had been boosted by pressure on the supply of the metal, as demand remained high from both investors and industries which use it.
Commodities were the second best performing asset class during 2010, offering returns of 30%, while they were the third best during the past decade, with a 176% increase in value.
They were also the best performing asset during the first two months of 2011, driven by a 38% jump in the price of cotton since the start of the year, due to a combination of rising demand from Asia and falling supply as some of the major cotton producing countries were hit by flooding.
All nine asset classes produced a positive return during the past year, although people who held their money in cash would have seen it rise by just 0.6%, while residential property did little better with a gain of 1.2%.
UK shares and commercial property both returned 14.5%, while the value of international shares increased by 10.6%.
Suren Thiru, economist at Lloyds TSB, said: “Going forward, the level of demand from emerging economies, particularly from China and India, is likely to remain an important determinant of many assets prices as well as the pace at which the global economic recovery continues.”

Related articles