One study found there is only about one gram of gold for every 100 million metric tons of ocean water in the Atlantic and north Pacific. There is also (undissolved) gold in/on the seafloor. The ocean, however, is deep, meaning that gold deposits are a mile or two underwater.
According to ACS, there is approximately 700 trillion dollars worth of gold in seawater.
15,000 tonnes – Even at only 10 parts of gold per quadrillion, the world's oceans are estimated to hold up to 15,000 tonnes of gold.
$771 Trillion Worth Of Gold Lies Hidden In The Ocean: Good Luck Getting It.
Australia is estimated to have the world's largest gold reserves, with 9,500 tonnes or 17 per cent of the total world estimated gold reserves of 57,000 tonnes. Geoscience Australia estimates that 60 per cent of Australia's gold reserves are in Western Australia.
In Australia this concentration of gold took place in the Earth hundreds of millions of years ago in the eastern states, and thousands of millions of years ago in Western Australia. As well as gold, the fluids can carry other dissolved minerals, such as quartz. This is why gold is often found with quartz.
We do know that gold makes up about four parts per billion of the earth's crust. What we don't know, however, is precisely how much gold is still out there. The WGC estimates that there are 54,000 tonnes of “below-ground gold reserves” waiting to be mined.
"We can say that more than 99% of the Earth's gold is in the core," Wood says. "It's a nice image to think we could all step outside and be knee-deep in the stuff."
Other gold mines use underground mining, where the ore is extracted through tunnels or shafts. South Africa has the world's deepest hard rock gold mine up to 3,900 metres (12,800 ft) underground. At such depths, the heat is unbearable for humans, and air conditioning is required for the safety of the workers.
A discoverer who finds a shipwreck pursuant to the law of finds is entitled to the full value of all of the goods that are recovered. Since the owner of the vessel has given up trying to recover the shipwreck, the discoverer is deemed to have full rights to the content.
The United States holds the largest stockpile of gold reserves in the world by a considerable margin at over 8,100 tons. The U.S. government has almost as many reserves as the next three largest gold-holding countries combined (Germany, Italy, and France).
About 244,000 metric tons of gold has been discovered to date (187,000 metric tons historically produced plus current underground reserves of 57,000 metric tons).
The moon isn't so barren after all. A 2009 NASA mission—in which a rocket slammed into the moon and a second spacecraft studied the blast—revealed that the lunar surface contains an array of compounds, including gold, silver, and mercury, according to PBS.
Holtermann 'Nugget': 10,229oz. While the Welcome Stranger is the largest gold nugget ever discovered, the single biggest gold specimen ever found is the Holtermann. Dug up in October 1872 by German miner Bernhardt Holtermann at Hill End in New South Wales, it was crushed, and the gold extracted.
You want to look for signs of gold like black sands, pyrite and small quartz, as these are all usually good indicators of gold being in the area. Garnets may also be present, often appearing in many shades of colors including red, orange and pink!
NASA is on a mission to explore a Greek-named asteroid called 16 Psyche that contains a double-edged sword. Made completely of metal, it boasts enough gold to either make every person on Earth a billionaire—or to collapse the gold market and destabilize the entire global financial world.
Because of this, the amount of gold on earth is finite. While there is no way to know exactly how much gold remains to be mined, experts agree that there are few remaining, untouched gold deposits hidden in layers of rock. The world will run out of minable gold, though exactly when is unknown.
How Long Before Gold Runs Out and What Happens Then? Based on known reserves, estimates suggest that gold mining could reach the point of being economically unsustainable by 2050, though new vein discoveries will likely push that date back somewhat.
Unexpected gold: on the Moon
Satellite imaging has shown that the top 10 centimetres of regolith (moon soil) at the south pole of the moon appear to hold about 100 times more gold than the richest mines on earth.
All the gold that's ever been mined would fit into a cube with edges 22 meters long — small enough to fit into three Olympic-sized swimming pools. Each year, miners and pawnbrokers add another 4,000 to 5,000 metric tons to an existing 197,576 ton pile, but jewelry demand alone uses up about half of that.
Today, recreational gold mining can be carried out in several areas such as Warrego near the town of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory, Clermont in Queensland and Echunga Goldfield in Southern Australia. Each state has its own set of rules and regulations.
In Australia, gold prospectors have so many opportunities to become very rich. The time spent moving from one location to another, searching for gold with metal detectors, is worth it.
Considered by most authorities to be the biggest gold nugget ever found, the Welcome Stranger was found at Moliagul, Victoria, Australia, in 1869 by John Deason and Richard Oates. It weighed gross, over 2,520 troy ounces (78 kg; 173 lb) and returned over 2,284 troy ounces (71.0 kg; 156.6 lb) net.
International regime
Outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means.