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Gold and platinum have real world uses, besides just being a scarce metal used in jewelry.

Those numbers are completely meaning less to determine when we will run out.

Theoretically, you are right.

------ In no way the following is intended to be flamebite/troll (at most, karma whoring) -------

It would be advisable, based on this theory and the above poster's estimate for a rate of 20000/1, to invest in cinnamon plantations, but keep the following points in mind:
1. cinnamon is more renewable than the Earth's gold resource - advantage? Yes, suply limited only on short periods of time ("world cinnamon crisis" will be different than "world oil crisis")
2. on long term I reckon we'll still run out of Earth's gold sonner than we run out of cinnamon. Need to plan the exit strategy from the "cinnamon plantation investment" (or see what other metals in demand would "nano-particulate" with cinnamon).

Some other info to consider before deciding to invest:
a. estimate of the world's gold consumption for industrial purposes at the present 10%
b. total gold demand for Q3 2010 - 992 tones with a Y2Y increase of 12% (the demand for jewellery increasing by 8% - 4 countries sucking in 63% from this - the ones less affected by the world crisis, US is not among them)
c. use of gold as nanoparticles here (a bit old, 2007). But a bit of google-fu would orient the savvy investor better.

I on the other hand believe in the intrinsic value of gold. Gold is too useful a material to be made a currency.

If you make gold a currency it will be too expensive for the current practical stuff we are using gold for because there isn't enough gold around. We wouldn't be able to use gold in many items we are currently using gold for because it'll be a significant percentage of a person's salary.

Using gold as a currency is like using 10 specific sea-shells as currency for the whole world (with the big difference that those seashells aren't as useful). Those sea shells suddenly become very very expensive. You're not going to grind them up to make coatings for astronaut helmet visors.

Estimates are 165,000 tonnes of gold _ever_ mined. http://www.gold.org/faq/answer/76/how_much_gold_has_been_mined/

165000 tonnes / 6 billion = 27.5 grams. 27.5 grams of gold per person as their entire savings on average.

Currently a ton of circuit boards has about 80 to 1500 grams of gold.

Now figure how much a current gold-containing motherboard would be in terms of your monthly salary in gold. And thus work out how much gold you'd be able to use in a motherboard in a "gold = currency" world.

Then redo the math with the reasonable assumption that Bill Gates and friends would own 50% of all the gold.

Oh, and another thing: why do you think that the solution to a bad money system is to return to the gold standard? Consider this: the current amount of U.S. currency in circulation is $783 billion. Current estimates put the US's gold reserves at around $252 billion. So where does the extra $531 billion come from? The government buying massive amounts of gold; about $531 billion. At about $750 a troy ounce, that amounts to about 24,000 short tons. Estimates say that there are 22,000 short tons of gold left in the world. Therefore, the US govt would have to buy up massive amounts of gold, driving the price way up and playing hell with the dental and electronics industries.

Oh, and another thing: why do you think that the solution to a bad money system is to return to the gold standard? Consider this: the current amount of U.S. currency in circulation is $783 billion. Current estimates put the US's gold reserves at around $252 billion. So where does the extra $531 billion come from? The government buying massive amounts of gold; about $531 billion. At about $750 a troy ounce, that amounts to about 24,000 short tons. Estimates say that there are 22,000 short tons of gold left in the world. Therefore, the US govt would have to buy up massive amounts of gold, driving the price way up and playing hell with the dental and electronics industries.

How does total bullshit like this get modded up? How much gold is there? Total: 145,000 tonnes.

145,000 tonnes * 1000 kgs/tonne * 2.2 lb/kg * 16 oz/lb = 5.1 Billion oz. At a current spot price of about $720/oz, that's $3.7 Trillion for all the gold ever mined on Earth. Not even enough to cover half of the US national debt.

If we actually started USING the 95% of the worlds gold that wastes away in vaults, the value of gold would be almost nothing due to inflation (19x increase in supply).

Wow... you are totally making this shit up as you go along. Fact check: How many tonnes of gold are in reserves? The sum of the top 40 government reserves around the world comes to 29,846.7 Tonnes. 29,846.7/145,000 = about 20%. This means about 80% of the world's gold is in private hands. If all the nations of the world dumped *all* their gold on the market tomorrow, it would be a 0.25 times increase in supply. Somehow, I don't see gold investors fleeing in terror from such action. Most of us would giggle in glee at the buying opportunity.

I'm sick of all the "money is a scam" articles on the internet recently.

Maybe you should try reading a few of them. You might learn something.

That's happening. And the World Gold Council is trying to slow it down. The price of gold is way down from the peak. Gold is down about 75% in constant dollars from the peak in the 1970s. There are closed gold mines all over the world, ready to reopen if the price goes up. And central banks have been selling off gold ("why are we storing this stuff?").

The World Gold Council is trying to prop up the price with a campaign along the lines of the "Diamonds are Forever" campaign that the DeBeers Central Selling Organization ran for decades. It's not working.

Gold is a commodity, and it fluctuates like a commodity.

There's now a promotional organization, the World Gold Council, trying to hype up the price of gold. They're trying to do for gold what the DeBeers Consolidated Selling Organization ("A Diamond is Forever") did for diamonds. It's not working.

There are many marginal gold mines, mothballed until the price of gold goes up. Some have been waiting since the 1970s. If the price ever goes up much, those old mines will open again and flood the market.

Don't look to gold for long-term stability. There's an argument for currency diversification, but not for gold.