Try as they might, miners cannot find enough ore at viable costs to replace their fast-depleting reserves, even if they dig kilometres into the the Earth.

"There's not much gold out there," said Gregory Wilkins, chief executive of the producer Barrick Gold.

"Global mine supply is going to decrease at a much faster rate than people generally believe. Many of the new mines that people are anticipating will never come into production," he told the RBC Capital Markets gold conference in London.

Read Full Story