Copper gets buried in wiring for good, oil gets burned away, but almost every gram of gold humans have ever mined is still with us today. That makes gold not an industrial material but money no one can print more of. In 2025, central banks around the world scrambled to buy gold to flee the dollar, driving the price to 53 record highs in a single year and past $4,000 an ounce for the first time. This lesson explains why gold is special, who actually moves the price, how gold is dug out of rock, and who the real mine owners are.