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In a recent interview, Peter Munk, founder and chairman of the world’s largest gold miner, Barrick Gold, said that even now he is no “gold bug”, reports the China Mineral Company. A mystical belief in the metal’s value is irrelevant when it quite clearly rises and falls like anything else, he says.

“Is there anywhere else people can put their money and not lose it? On this question I have had more phone calls in the past six months than ever before – from people who have $120,000 inherited from their grandmother, and from hedge fund managers with millions. I am not saying George Soros, but people of that calibre have told me they are investing in gold.”  Munk also described how the global economy will recover but individual investors have been traumatized. “A feeling of insecurity is here to stay. The result is that the appeal of gold as a hedge has broadened enormously.” When markets do recover, he adds, so will jewelry demand, the largest component of gold demand.

If the gold price has found a new floor at about $800 an ounce, Barrick and other big gold miners stand to see a surge in revenues this year. This has led to speculation that gold mining companies – somewhat like Chinese mining companies – could snap up other assets inexpensively and become more diversified miners.