Gold prices are affected by many factors, including international currency markets, other metal prices, and financial markets in general. However, what most affects gold prices is the price of mining new gold.
Gold-mining is an expensive endeavor at any time, but when the price of the materials and utilities employed in gold mining rises, then so does the price of mining gold. Right now, the price of the materials and utilities that are used in gold mining have made gold mining even more expensive than it has been in the past.
Gold mining uses heavy equipment and chemicals both to unearth ore and to extract gold from the ore. As inflation has affected the prices of this equipment and the chemicals used, the price of gold mining has increased, as well.
Also, the increase in fuel prices has made both the process of mining gold and the shipping of gold to market places more expensive. The materials used to mine gold have to be trucked to the site, and as the price of transporting these materials has risen, the increase has been passed on to gold mining companies. And, as the price of transporting gold to those who buy new gold as increased, so has the price of gold.



