The Unchanging Shine — The Future of Gold

In the previous episode, we saw modern gold rise to a new throne as a safe-haven asset. Bought in every crisis, stacked in the vaults of central banks, traded on screens. Gold had become a mirror reflecting the anxieties of the world economy.

But gold’s story does not end with ornaments and investment. Today, most of us touch gold almost daily without knowing it. For within the smartphone in our palm sleeps a tiny amount of gold. In this final episode, while tracing gold as an industrial material, the new mine of discarded machines, and the shadow that mining brings, we return to a single question. Why has humanity remained captivated by this metal for five thousand years?

A tiny amount of gold in the palm of your hand

Gold is not merely a beautiful metal. It conducts electricity well, does not rust, and stretches thin with ease. These qualities are ideal for the precise electronic devices of today. As a material that protects the contacts and wiring of circuits from rust and deterioration and conveys electricity reliably, gold has become indispensable to industry.

Inside a smartphone, too, a tiny amount of gold is used in circuit boards, contacts, and connectors. The amount per device is said to be around 0.03 grams, almost invisible to the naked eye. Yet across the world, vast numbers of smartphones, computers, and home appliances are made and used. Though each device holds only a trace, when added up across the whole world, gold is scattered through electronics in quantities that cannot be ignored.

Gold, which once adorned the tombs of kings and became the currency of empires, now supports the information of civilization in unseen places. Not as dazzling ornament, but as a material that performs a function. Gold’s unchanging shine — its quality of not rusting or deteriorating — lives on, five thousand years later, within an entirely new role.

The urban mine of discarded machines

The gold scattered through electronic devices raises a new question when those machines reach the end of their lives. Smartphones and computers no longer in use pile up across the world as vast amounts of electronic waste (e-waste). Reports by international bodies say the world’s volume of e-waste keeps increasing year by year, and it is estimated that a considerable amount of gold, silver, copper, and other metals is contained within it.

From this was born the idea of urban mining. The notion is that not the veins underground, but the discarded electronic devices overflowing in cities, are the precious metal veins. In fact, it has been pointed out that discarded electronics can sometimes contain gold at a far higher concentration than natural ore of the same weight. Not digging it out, but recovering and reusing gold that has already been extracted. This is becoming a new way of obtaining the finite supply of gold.

However, the reality is not simple. Extracting gold from e-waste takes effort and cost, and the proportion of the world’s e-waste that is properly collected and recycled is said to be still low. Much e-waste is processed without adequate facilities and becomes a cause of scattering hazardous substances. Urban mining is at once a hope and a challenge not yet sufficiently realized.

The shadow of mining, and the hope of recovery

When considering the future of gold, the environmental burden of mining cannot be avoided. The work of extracting new gold from the earth digs up vast amounts of soil, uses water and chemicals, and reshapes the land. Especially at small-scale, artisanal mining sites, mercury is still widely used to extract gold, and it is said to pollute rivers, the air, and the soil.

According to reports by international bodies, such small-scale gold mining is said to account for a considerable portion of the world’s mercury pollution, and is pointed out to threaten the health of the people who work at the sites and of nearby residents. Mercury is said to accumulate in the bodies of living things through the food chain and may harm the nerves and organs. Behind gold’s shine, a heavy cost over land and people piles up.

That is precisely why urban mining and recycling are not merely a matter of thrift. If the gold already above ground is recovered and reused, perhaps that much new mining can be reduced. It is also an attempt to change the way we deal with gold, from a relationship of mining it out to one of circulating it. Gold’s quality of not rusting and being able to be melted down and reused any number of times quietly takes on meaning here too. Once produced, gold goes on circulating among humanity, almost without being lost.

Why has gold captivated us for five thousand years?

Here we return to the question that was the starting point of the series. Why has humanity remained captivated by gold for so long?

One answer lies in gold’s own nature. It does not rust, does not change, and loses none of its shine even when stretched thin. This physical permanence has led people to associate it with eternity and the sacred. Furthermore, the rarity of being limited in how much can be extracted from the earth has supported its value. Being unchanging, and not being easily obtained. These two things have surely made gold something special.

Yet there remains a part that this alone cannot fully explain. Gold holds value largely because people all over the world believe together that gold has value. Ancient kings revered it as the metal of the gods, empires struck it into currency, modern states piled it up as reserves, and present-day investors regard it as a safe haven. That long accumulation itself has supported gold’s value. Perhaps it can be said that gold’s allure is born where the nature of the material and the history of people’s trust are inseparably bound together.

Five thousand years ago, humanity saw in the yellow metal glinting in the earth the radiance of the gods. Through a long span of time since, gold has adorned the tombs of kings, driven empires, crossed the seas, sent people into frenzy, been enclosed by states, and now works quietly within the small machine in our palms. While its form and role kept shifting, gold itself, without rusting and almost without being lost, has gone on circulating among humanity.

What stories that unchanging shine will give rise to from here depends on how we ourselves choose to deal with this metal. To mine it out, or to circulate it. To revere it, or to master its use. The answer is still not known to anyone.

Thank you for accompanying us through all ten episodes, along the long journey of humanity and gold. If this story becomes, somewhere, an occasion for you to let your thoughts turn to the five thousand years behind the shine of gold when you encounter it, that would be our joy.

【The Story of Gold: Humanity’s Eternal Obsession — End】