How Much Gold is in The World
So exactly how much gold is there in the world and how long before we run out, if ever? The question has three purposes. Firstly, out of simple trivial interest, secondly in order to assess whether there is ample supply for industrial application and thirdly and perhaps most pertinently, in order to predict what the future holds for the price of gold and how much it is worth. Gold like all other natural resources is extracted from the earth’s crust. Even though it is also found in the world’s oceans, it cannot be economically extracted from them as yet.
Locations that are plentiful in gold include South Africa, USA, China, Russia, Australia, Peru and many other sites around the world. Unlike many other elements, gold due to its unreactive nature is often found as pure nuggets of solid gold.
It is of course this very property that has lent itself to establishing gold as a form of money; the fact that it maintains its integrity and is not susceptible to tarnishing, rusting or reaction with other elements. Gold can resist forever the strong oxidising effect of atmospheric oxygen that makes a banana and apple go brown and soggy within minutes.
Mining & The California Gold Rush
The famous California gold rush of 1849, after which the San Francisco 49′s football team is named, was due not only to the reserves found in the Sierra Nevada mountains but that it flowed into streams and rivers allowing prospectors to simply dip a pan into waterways and literally fish out the gold.
In its earliest days, prospectors were collecting nuggets worth hundreds of dollars on a daily basis and Samuel Brannan a Frisco newspaper publisher and merchant famously strode through the streets of San Francisco, holding aloft a vial of gold, shouting “Gold! Gold! Gold from the American River!”.
The California gold rush is a significant event in determining how much gold is in the world or ‘above ground’ as approximately 90% of all gold mined has been done in the time since this event.
Estimates vary but it would appear that the amount of gold mined is in the region of around 5 billion ounces. It sounds like a lot but physically it would take up the space of a cube 20 metres in side or roughly the size of a large cinema hall.
US Debt is More Than All The Gold in the World
With gold prices toying with the $2000 an ounce mark, the amount of gold in the world calculates to a value of $10 trillion dollars. That is a bit scary when you realise that the US debt as of 2012 is over $14 trillion dollars. In other words, all the gold in the world would not pay off the US debt!
Of this quantity, the vast majority, over 50%, exists in the form of jewelry. Central banks and investment bullion account for the lion’s share of the remainder with the smallest bracket of approximately 10% used in industrial applications.
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