Although there is a theoretical limit to the amount of gold on earth, there remains many times over the roughly 220 to 250 tons of pure gold that has been mined by humans. There’s a lot more on earth but it’s difficult to get to, and that is what makes it valuable.
It’s estimated that there’s over 20 million tons of gold disolved in seawater alone and another 20 million tons in the ocean’s bottoms.
If you included the earth’s core there’s another 1.6 quadrillion tons.
You are technically correct, but the real supply is so overwhelmingly large (40,000,000 tons in the oceans and 1,600,000,000,000,000 tons in the earth’s core,) it is, for all practical purposes, infinite.
It’s more than likely due to its use in industry as a catalyst and that demand fluctuates with market demands and technological advances. I think gold’s historical use as a medium of exchange and the fact that gold is 30 times more plentiful makes it a better and more dependable medium in which to hold individual wealth.
In the past, platinum was usually a byproduct of gold refinement. It is used in jewelry AND has industrial uses. (In Catalytic convertors, for instance.)
Platinum was always priced about 10% higher than gold. Now it is less than half as much. That is a big, big change!
Meanwhile, Rhodium has increased in price way more than gold. The precious metals markets are doing some strange things lately.
Rhodium’s price is probably linked to new or increased demand, and since it’s 13.5 times more scarce than platinum, it’s bound to cost more than platinum or gold. The gold vs platinum relationship is skewed a bit because platinum is considered more of an industrial raw material and gold is both a raw material AND a widely accepted medium of exchange in international trade.
In terms of ppm of Earth’s crust, gold is 0.003 ppm, platinum is 0.0005 ppm, and rhodium is 0.000037 ppm.
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