Why can't you replicate gold? What is gold? It's some elementary particles (like quarks) arranged in a certain way that we all agree are valuable. We could easily agree that some other arrangement is valuable (such as Aluminum).
https://www.slideshare.net/winklevosscap/money-is-broken-its... (Slides 7-17)
https://www.gold.org/about-gold/gold-supply/gold-mining/how-...