Gold Prices to Soar on the Back of New Scientific Discovery
There’s a new scientific discovery, and it could be the catalyst that sends gold prices soaring.
Scientists at The University of Edinburgh recently discovered that the precious metal could be used to increase the effectiveness of drugs used to treat lung cancer cells.
Advertisement
Regarding this discovery, Dr. Asier Unciti-Broceta, from Cancer Research UK’s Edinburgh center, said “We have discovered new properties of gold that were previously unknown and our findings suggest that the metal could be used to release drugs inside tumours very safely.” (Source: “Gold ‘could be used in cancer treatment,’” BBC News, August 7, 2017.)
Mind you, there’s still more research that needs to be done. Scientists performed research on zebrafish, but there’s hope among them that it could be used for human treatment as well.
Also Read: The Gold Price Forecast 2018 Might Surprise You
Scientists at the University of Edinburgh believe that gold could be used to reduce the side effects of chemotherapy treatments—by attacking the affected cells and not damaging the healthy cells.
How Does This Really Impact Gold Prices?
You see, gold is usually just considered a thing that investors buy in times of uncertainty, inflation, and currency devaluation.
With this discovery, all of a sudden, there could be a new use for the precious metal. It could have a medical use.
How much gold could be used? We don’t really know the exact amount of gold needed for each treatment.
But, we could do some extrapolation…
Consider this: lung cancer is the second-most common cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, there could be 222,500 new cases of lung cancer in 2017. (Source: “Key Statistics for Lung Cancer,” American Cancer Society, last accessed August 15, 2017.)
Also Read: Precious Metal Analysis: Keep Gold and Silver on Your Radar in 2017
On a global level, this figure is much bigger. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2012, there were 1.242 million cases of lung cancer. (Source: “GLOBOCAN 2012: Estimated Cancer Incidence, Mortality and Prevalence Worldwide In 2012,” World Health Organization, last accessed August 15, 2017.)
With this in mind, assuming that lung cancer cases don’t increase and the amount of gold required for the entire treatment is one ounce, a total of 1.242 million ounces (35 tonnes) of gold could be needed. Again, it must be emphasized: gold ounce figures are assumptions.
While 35 tonnes may not sound like much, think big. Currently, we are seeing gold producers facing headwinds, and demand is increasing. These 35 tonnes could only add fuel to the fire.
Gold Prices Outlook: Why Precious Metal’s Worth the Investment
Dear reader, bullish stock advisers will have you convinced that gold isn’t worth the investment.
As I see it, gold prices are severely undervalued. And, you make huge returns when assets are undervalued, not when they are overvalued relative to historical averages.
This discovery of gold possibly being used to treat cancer makes me even more bullish on gold prices. I continue to believe that gold prices could soar to $2,000 sooner than many think. I will be bold here and say this: all the bases are loaded for much higher gold prices. Patient investors could reap massive rewards.
With all this, the last thing investors would want to do is ignore mining companies. They are selling for pennies on the dollar. As gold prices increase, mining shares could skyrocket.
