Refining takes big machines and a lot of energy. It's pretty much the opposite of free money, you need to invest a lot to unlock the revenue stream.

China likes blocking various minerals such as rare earths to force countries to accept whatever outcome they desire.

I’m guessing those new mines opening are to limit the impact of this sort of situation in the future.

China is only 11.5% of world gold production (from mines).

> Huh. I'd have thought that capacity would rise with ore supply. It is "free money". Why leave it in the ground?

> Sounds as if there is a point at which digging and refining is more expensive than buyers are willing to pay, so when demand goes up it takes time to expand supply.

It is common for gold mines to shut down when the price of gold is low, or when technologies used cannot extract a profitable amount. Mines can quickly resume operations when either conditions are met.

If its free money why not leave it in the ground?

Why should gold be worth that much more in a bank vault than an underground mine? You’re not going to touch either of them!

Just get a note saying you own the gold in whatever cubic foot below ground marked by some coordinate system.

For paper gold you don't even need gold.

> Why should gold be worth that much more in a bank vault than an underground mine?

OG PoW.

Less facetiously: refined gold is a commodity. Gold ores are various and require expertise to differentiate and value. They're also bulky relative to their gold content.