I agree that we should ban most forms of gold mining. I even wrote a story about it.

https://timknowles.medium.com/gold-mining-should-stop-45ed1a1415d1

I think that if you have more than tiny investments you should own some gold. I own some gold, physical gold, gold stocks and ETF physical gold. I do it for diversification and security. I have modest amounts of physical gold and silver along with cash in the safe. The cash does not appreciate but the gold and silver might but that does not matter. What matters is they might buy me something when credit cards or ATM's aren't working. During my evacuation from hurricane Katrina the only gas station I could get to at one point would only take cash and you had to have exact change. They were running the pumps on a generator.

Right now I am invested to preserve my wealth. Eggs in many baskets. Why not have some golden eggs and some Crypto eggs and some real estate eggs and some stock eggs and some bond eggs.

I don't need income or appreciation, I just need to not lose a lot of my money.

TEK