You're right, some of it gets lost, but where I live there's a company that recycles all kinds of electronic equipment, circuit boards, mobile phones, .... The company's name is Umicore, they recover the gold at a cost that's cheaper than mining companies can. I can't find a source to back up that claim ( I saw a video ) but they get other precious metals out of it as well, which reduces the cost. Some website even sell Umicore gold bars. Although, I wouldn't recommend that you buy those bars, the price per gram is way too much, imo.

I think this link backs up your claim on what Umicore does http://www.preciousmetals.umicore.com/PMR/

Another quite interesting article on gold - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/qi/8667421/QI-Quite-inter... - points out that electronic equipment is actually one of the best sources of gold nowdays. One ton of electronic scrap yields more gold than 17 tons of gold ore.

> One ton of electronic scrap yields more gold than 17 tons of gold ore.

Holy shit!

Wouldn't burying gold in funeral ceremonies classify as consuming as well?

One would hope that this is true in Tutankhamun's case; although we cannot compute how many other priceless archaeological treasures have been melted down for their precious metal content.

I would say no, because the cost of digging it up again is very low and it's going to happen eventually.