Gold is booming – but how safe is it for investors, really?

Trade wars and volatile markets have contributed to a gold rush, but investors shouldn't put all their eggs in this one basket, warn experts

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"What you have there is about £250,000 worth of gold," Emma Siebenborn says as she shows me a faded plastic tub filled with old, shabby jewellery - rings, charm bracelets, necklaces and orphaned earrings.

Emma is the strategies director of Hatton Garden Metals, a family-run gold dealership in London's Hatton Garden jewellery district, and this unprepossessing tub of bric-a-brac is a small sample of what they buy over the counter each day. It is, in effect, gold scrap, which will be melted down and recycled.

Also on the table, rather more elegantly presented in a suede-lined tray, is a selection of gold coins and bars. The largest bar is about the size and thickness of a mobile phone. It weighs a hefty 1kg, and it's worth about £80,000.

The coins include biscuit-sized Britannias, each containing precisely one ounce of 24 carat bullion, as well as smaller Sovereigns. These are all available to buy - and the recent surge in gold prices has led to a surge in demand.