Warren Buffett always mocked people who invested in gold, calling it a useless metal that “gets dug out of the ground in Africa, or someplace” and a way of “going long on fear”. This year, however, the “sage of Omaha” joined investors including the world’s largest hedge fund Bridgewater Associates in buying into the latest gold rush, which helped push prices to a record high this summer.

During the second quarter, Mr Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway bought a $565m stake in Barrick Gold, the world’s second largest gold miner. Shares in Barrick, which mines in Africa, Latin America and the US, have risen 37 per cent since the beginning of April. Also in the second quarter, Bridgewater invested in gold-backed exchange traded funds — which allow investors to buy physical gold like a stock — worth $316m, according to company filings.

Such interest from western investors has triggered a rise in the gold price from a low of $1,160 in the summer of 2018 to a record high of $2,073 an ounce in August, making the precious metal one of the best performing financial assets on the planet. Growing fears over the economic impact of coronavirus and negative bond yields have seen more than $60bn invested in gold-backed ETFs this year, 50 per cent more than in 2009 during the financial crisis.