The Archive
20 long-form pieces across history, markets, industry, craft, mining and science. Filter by desk, re-sort, or search the full text of every issue.
Markets
For three decades official institutions were net sellers of bullion, and the policy consensus treated the metal as a museum piece. Then, quietly, the world's reserve managers reversed. The reasons are less about inflation than about the plumbing of settlement.
6 August 2026 · 17 min read
Mining
A gold mine is not a hole with gold in it. It is a spreadsheet with a hole attached — and the single number that decides which rock is ore and which rock is waste moves every time the price does.
5 August 2026 · 16 min read
Industry
Industrial demand is the quietest third of the gold market: a few tenths of a gram per handset, multiplied by billions of devices, chosen not for prestige but because nothing else conducts as reliably for as long.
4 August 2026 · 15 min read
Craft
Half the world's gold is worn, not stored. In India and China that distinction barely exists — and the buying behaviour it produces is the most reliably contrarian force in the entire market.
3 August 2026 · 16 min read
Browse by desk
