The rising costs of gold are because of many factors and you cannot single out just one of them. This has been happening since much before the present global recession though, so we cannot hold the recession to blame. One of the most prominent reasons gold prices have been spiraling skyward since 2002 is because of the fact that the reserves of gold are becoming lesser and lesser. This has always been happening, but the pinch is beginning to be felt now. Various factors have increased the costs of gold and the fact that people have realized that the gold in the earth's crust is, after all, exhaustible definitely does not help matters any.

Prevalence of Gold in the Earth's Crust

Gold, as we know, is obtained in the crust of the earth. It is a natural metal obtained in a combined form with other metals and minerals such as silver (mostly), quartz, sulfides, lead, copper, mercury, tellurium and several other minerals of other metals. The extraction of gold is a difficult process as all these impurities need to be physically or chemically separated. This is followed by the refining of gold through an electrical process where gold of up to 99.95% purity is obtained.

Gold in the Earth is Exhaustible!

It can be seen that gold needs to be mined from the interior of the earth. Now the earth definitely has a limited amount of gold in its interior. There have been studies into the amounts of gold present in the earth, which take into account the total amount of gold that has ever been mined from the earth. This amount, as of 2006, stood at 158,000 tons. This was the amount of gold ever mined from the earth on a global scale.

America's Gold Problem

However, this amount is undergoing a very rapid depletion as of now. America is one of the world's largest miners of gold. The amount of gold that is left in American land is much less than what it was in the present century. It is believed that if America continues to mine and use gold at the rate that it does, there will be only half a century's worth of gold left in its crust. This means, by 2060, America will have no gold left to mine.

Solving the Impending Gold Crisis

This has certainly set some alarm bells ringing and that is the reason many companies have come forward to try and recycle gold. Even America's largest gold buyer and refining company, Cash4Gold has started buying gold from people who want to sell it and mould it into new products. Cash4Gold has an environment-friendly agenda – to recycle gold so that the amount of gold that is present within the bowels of the earth remains intact as much as possible. At the same time, it has started a stream of gold selling which is helping people in these economically difficult times. The company provides very close to the market value of gold and even throws in a small incentive to the sellers so that they feel motivated about selling more of their gold.

Such recycling companies seem to be the only ray of light on the bleak horizon where it seems that we shall be losing the most precious metal on the earth quite soon.