Think it was only recently that China became a net importer of Gold, a large amount as well even though they are already the worlds largest gold producer... That really says something. They dont regularly update their gold reserve position, my epectation is that when they do next inform the market of their holdings it will be a surprise to the market which will spike the price...
Gold price over $US1600/ounce
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As a percentage of total reserves their gold is still low though. I forget the figures (there are so many) but there just isn't enough available above ground or likely to mined for them to reach a modest percentage. (I think they were talking 10%)
Italy has a useful amount in reserve and I'm wondering what would happen if they were forced to sell some to meet their obligations. Would that "flood the market" and depress the price or legitimise gold as a currency and force countries like Australia (which has bugger all after Costello sold 80% of it for a song) to increase their holdings to support their currencies.
All hypothetical, I doubt it will happen.
You're kidding, no?
No. They will have fibre-optic water pipes, fibre-optic house wiring ....... everything. trust me!
OK, seriously. The advance of technology has reduced the amount of copper required in telephony for decades.
Just replacing the old copper wire pairs with co-axial cable greatly reduced the copper needed. This was so dramatic that I once read that more copper was being "mined" under city streets than from the earth.
China's new cities do not give back this old wiring for recycling. This is often missed in the steel business too. Nearly every time "the west" builds a car, we scrap an old one. China is building new cars, and bridges, rail lines and everything else. The resource boom isn't dead yet.
Just replacing the old copper wire pairs with co-axial cable greatly reduced the copper needed. This was so dramatic that I once read that more copper was being "mined" under city streets than from the earth.
China's new cities do not give back this old wiring for recycling. This is often missed in the steel business too. Nearly every time "the west" builds a car, we scrap an old one. China is building new cars, and bridges, rail lines and everything else. The resource boom isn't dead yet.
If you had a modest 4/2/2 you would probably use at the very most 1kg of copper in the phone/network system.
The electrical would easily be 30kg of copper.
So you change all the phone's/networking to fibre optic and the amount of copper you have used is... 3% less.
You can't run power over fibre.
The electrical would easily be 30kg of copper.
So you change all the phone's/networking to fibre optic and the amount of copper you have used is... 3% less.
You can't run power over fibre.
fibre optics for house wiring is already here.
and most australian industries use plastic water piping in new homes, and seamless line tube for higher pressure requirements.
no, but you dont need to run copper wire 6 ways from Sunday with fibre optics.
the idea is that most of the power stays in the roof on one or two circuits.
remember, with the move to LED lighting, the size of wire needed to supply power is greatly reduced. add that to the more central power system and you have more like a 50-70% reduction in copper use.
its not going to remove the use of copper, but it will significantly reduce it.
Can you buy LED ovens and LED hot plates and LED air conditioners and ....
I ran 120m of 25mm^2 copper mains in yesterday (it was super heavy) so reducing the amount of copper in the house wiring is a moot point.
My original post wasn't to start an argument. I was honestly interested in what the other options were, I've not looked into it much at all, but copper is here to stay for a while yet.
i'm not denying that at all. i'm just saying that the need for copper will be significantly reduced over the next decade.
i mean, look at ovens - they only need to be on for half the time now they're fan-forced. while that doesn't reduce the power inputs needed, it does reduce it's operation time.
a lot of Australian standards are over-engineered.
and Aaron C, i dont recommend any financial movements.