"One wonders if Gold is of so little practical use why so many Australian miners spend so much time and money mining out of the ground...."
Andy, why do we even need to continue to debate this?
The skolster and his acolytes aren't genuine contrarian sounding-boards, and therefore their anti-gold positions don't bring anything new or useful to the conversation.
We goldbugs know from our research that physical gold and silver have arguably the most important use of all, the absolute best long term store of wealth produced from past labour, along with true wealth protection insurance in dangerous economic times.
Like now.
23.