Warren Buffett has long been critical of gold as an investment, saying it “has no utility” and that the “magical metal” is no match for “American mettle”. He once wrote that “Anyone watching from Mars would be scratching their head” over how we treat the shiny stuff on this planet.

Yet the Berkshire Hathaway boss just acquired nearly 21 million shares of Barrick Gold, worth $563m, while selling shares of Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase, according to 13-F filings released on 14 August.