Well gold shares aren't gold so let's put that aside.
The topic talks about going back to gold. I interpreted it like having gold in the olden days. When you bite your gold dollar to test if it real.
Gold was not used directly in olden days mostly. We might need to argue about silver coins (hence
£Sterling) there but the majority of a population would never carry a gold coin.
Theres no need to transport metal in every transaction to prove it took place, like now most bills were settled by account or notes. We can certainly return to a system that references gold, the price would likely need to be 10,000 per ounce however in order that price of available gold in circulation would adequately describe and allow for world trade.
Jim Rickards discusses why 10,000 and not 5,000 and how the wrong price would cause upset like any bad exchange rate can to national commerce.
Going back to gold is not a return to the old west and gun fights at high noon, that might be the idea transfixed in peoples minds. All it means is a fixed system of account not with debt produced by governments as the sole basis to money used by a population. Its easy to see that the egos of national heads is not a stable basis for value and international business
Gold shares are a share of the company assets, presuming assets outweight debts that company would be holding gold in some proportion. I get what you mean but its possible for a company share to be entirely 100% a pile of gold in a safe. Its unlikely, most likely the gold mining firm owns land which contains raw gold possibly requires millions to extract it. However its still gold in some form or another.
Debt or bonds legally supersedes a company share, so its very reliant on the company not owing more in debt then it can repay before creditors seize the company. Obviously its not straight forward but many companies have a valid resource at $700 cost per ounce to extract, thats all normal so its gold in a long term holding. It could even be superior to holding in a safe where it can be more easily taken