Gold is now trading near its highest level in six months.

The price of gold leapt to $1,350 bar on March 6, up more than 12 percent since the start of the year. With so much demand, predictive maintenance on gold mining equipment might be in order. The cost was spurred by speculation that the second-biggest world consumer, India, could soon lift curbs and reduce taxes on imports that have been in place for more than a year. The restrictions were meant to lower the country's account deficit. 

Currently China is the top consumer of gold, with 2013 imports rising to 1,065 tons, which are up from 807  tons the year before. Together, the two gold titans constitute more than half of the world's demand.

On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures for April delivery last traded at $1,351.50 an ounce, which marked a $11.20 rise from Wednesday's close and near its 2014 best.

If India's duties and mandatory re-export of 20 percent of imports are lifted, demand in the form of jewelry, bars and coins could rise sharply.

Jamie Sokalsky, the chief executive officer of Barrick Gold Corp, the world's largest producer of metal, predicted that these prices will only continue to soar. 

"Ultimately we are going to see gold go back up and I think we could challenge the highs that we saw a couple of years ago," Sokalsky said at a Bloomberg event. "Within two or three years, I wouldn't be surprised to see gold back up towards $2,000."

For companies to be prepared for the surge in gold price, it's crucial to harness equipment monitoring technology, including tension monitoring and strain gauges. These systems can alert workers when machinery requires repairs before a break actually happens.

Prevent unplanned downtime of critical assets by using Scanimetrics equipment condition monitoring solutions.