The biggest sources of demand for gold are for jewellery and as an investment, but with more than 4,000 academic papers filed last year using the precious metal as a component, technology offers mining companies a way to use industrial innovation to promote sales.
To encourage research, the World Gold Council (WGC), the industry’s UK-based market development body, is investing to help promising research bridge the gap between university and the laboratory and money from venture capital frms and multinational companies.
Its frst equity investment is in Nanostellar, a US-based company working on limiting emissions from diesel vehicles, also backed by venture capital frms Firelake Capital Management, Khosla Ventures and Monitor Ventures, which is affliated to consultancy frm Monitor. Nanostellar last raised $2.4m from 16 investors, according to its regulatory fling.
Richard Holliday, director of technology at the WGC, said: "There is an increasing focus and momentum by the WGC on supporting technology and accelerating the commercialisation process in a way that is closer to corporate venturing than traditional fnancial venture capital."
The WGC invests money, knowledge of gold research and a supply of the metal to universities, start-ups and multinationals’ laboratories working on medical applications, environmental control and renewable energy projects. Last month, the WGC formed an advisory board and published a report, Gold: The hidden element in innovation.
The WGC said the number of papers fled with gold as a component had doubled between 2006 and 2010 while the number of patents published had broadly trebled in the same time. Its International Technology Advisory Board includes Barry Murrer, director of the technology centre at indus-trial group Johnson Matthey, and academics Enrique Iglesia, T Pradeep and Vincent Rotello.
Last year, gold demand reached a 10-year high of 3,812.2 tonnes ($150bn), driven primarily by purchases by Indian and Chinese consumers for jewellery, while 420 tonnes was used for technology (a 12% rise from 2009). Supply continued to outstrip demand, however, as mines produced more and the amount of recycled gold held broadly steady.