CASE STUDY
Gold for good
Gold has been highly valued for thousands of years and is as popular now as it has ever been; as jewellery, as a financial asset and as an industrial product. However, the social value that the gold industry adds to societies around the world, especially in poorer countries, is less understood.
Gold mining as an activity is vital to the economies of many developing countries, which account for approximately 70% of global gold production. In addition to generating export revenue in these countries, organized gold production provides royalty and tax income to host governments, technology transfer and the creation of a skilled workforce.
Gold mining is vital to the economies of many developing countries
Large scale gold mining can also bring substantial improvements in physical, social, legal and financial infrastructure. In many of these countries, gold mining is a foundation industry that often provides the critical mass for the development of electricity, water, road and rail transport in a region, factors that are the essential foundations of an economy.
The World Gold Council (WGC) report The Golden Building Block: gold mining and the transformation of developing economies found significant positive macroeconomic benefits to developing countries from large-scale gold production.
The report, which presented an in-depth case study of Tanzania, found that a major surge in recent foreign direct investment (FDI) had come overwhelmingly from large-scale gold mining.
Gold for technology
It is a little-known fact that approximately 11% of global demand for gold comes from technological applications. Gold is the material of choice in many high-tech electronic systems, especially in telecommunications, information technology and other high performance and safety critical applications.
The beneficial material properties of gold include outstanding resistance to corrosion, the ease with which it can be manufactured and its high thermal and electrical conductivity.
Only silver and copper are better conductors of electricity, but do not have comparable resistance to tarnishing or corrosion. In conditions under which most other metals either tarnish or corrode away, gold remains inert and extremely durable.
Gold also has a long, fascinating history in the biomedical and dental fields stretching back thousands of years. The key advantages of gold and its alloys for dental applications are its bio-compatibility, malleability and resistance to corrosion.
In recent years, gold has found itself in the forefront of the nanotechnology revolution. Exciting breakthroughs have been made using these minute particles of gold in a range of fields including drug delivery, medical and environmental diagnostics, pollution control and clean energy technologies.
The recent WGC report Gold for Good: Gold and nanotechnology in the age of innovation further details some of these exciting cutting-edge advances.
Through the WGC’s funding programs, the world's leading gold mining companies are directly supporting groundbreaking research that will lead to new technologies which will help tackle many pressing medical and environmental issues.
For all of these and many other uses of gold in society, please visit www.gold.org
CASE STUDY DETAILS
- Published
- 24 September 2010
- Company
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World Gold Council
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