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Demand for gold and copper has risen sharply in recent years.
Copper
Fueled by manufacturing growth, China has recently overtaken the United States as the number one consumer of copper. The market demand is extensive. Copper plays an important role in our daily lives. It can be found in almost every electrical appliance in a house, in cars, airplanes, industrial equipment and building materials. Copper is very easy to work with and can be rolled into sheets, molded and shaped or drawn into wire. It also blends with other metals to form useful alloys such as brass and bronze. Copper does not rust easily and is an excellent conductor of electricity and heat.
Gold
The largest demand for gold comes from the jewelry industry. However, gold is also vital to the manufacturing industry, where it is used in a wide range of products such as home appliances, computers, spacecrafts, satellites and medical equipment.
- Electronics: Gold plays an important role in the components for the millions of computers that are manufactured each year. In spacecrafts, gold prevents onboard computers from short circuiting, plays a vital role in movement and landing and enables sophisticated computer technology to transmit information back to earth. Gold also plays a part in processing broadcast signals into a TV picture and helps ensure clear relay pictures from your VCR to your TV.
- Telecommunications: Gold is a central component in the miniature transmitter inside a telephone and coats contacts for phone jacks and connecting cords in telephone systems around the world.
- Lasers and Optics: Gold is used to coat secondary mirrors in telescopes. Its ability to produce high reflectivity of infrared light has made it possible to produce some of the most precise images of Neptune and Uranus ever captured. Communications satellites orbiting the earth also use gold in many important ways, as do security systems used in both home and office environments.
- Medicine and Health: Gold is used in dentistry, eye surgery and treatments for rheumatoid arthritis. Lightweight lasers using gold plated contacts help military personnel treat wounded soldiers and hospital personnel treat seriously injured patients without moving them, saving both time and lives. Ear thermometers contain a gold coated tube to direct heat to the temperature sensing element.
- Industry and Aviation: Gold is used in aircraft and automobile engines, airbags and aircraft windows. Gold is also used in the protective gear used by firefighters.
- Investment: In December 2002, the government of China made it possible for its citizens to buy and hold gold bullion for the first time in 53 years. Investors have a traditional affinity for gold and feel confident making an investment because it is highly liquid and acts as a stabilizing influence for their portfolios.
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