[friend_and_foe]

It takes enormous resources to dig gold out of the ground.

[defrost]

Open pits 3.5 kilometres long x 1.5 kilometres wide x 600 metres deep don't dig themselves.

And then all that material has to be graded, sorted, crushed, sieved, processed to extract fines.

https://www.superpit.com.au/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Pit_gold_mine

[bluGill]

Which is what keeps the value of gold fairly stable long term despite the natural inflation caused by digging more.