Thursday, 22nd March 2007 (3654 views)

The field of nanotechnology has seen some recent ground-breaking discoveries of late and now experts are saying that new applications of gold and other precious metals within the nanotechnology sector may drive demand for the metals.

The Rand Refinery 2006 Annual Report claims that new applications of gold in science and technology will drive its long-term demand and mean that significant amounts of the metal will be sold for use in experimentation.

Dr Richard Holliday, who works with industrial applications, said: "Now new applications for gold nanoparticle catalysts are being explored in an array of new areas including air cleaning, pollution control, in fuel cells and in the production of bulk chemicals."

He explained that interest in this type of technology is not confined to academic research laboratories around the world but that major international companies like 3M, Johnson Matthey and BASF are all immensely interested in developing commercial applications for gold catalysts.

This means gold demand may stay high long-term which will have significant environmental benefits and the possibility of sustaining high quality of life in countries which produce gold.

 

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