Estimates of the gold content of the earth's crust are in the range ~f 0.001 to 0.006 parts per million. This report is one of several that summarize available data on the occurrence of gold.
Although the Earth's crust averages a mere 0.004 grams of gold per ton, commercial concentrations of gold are found in areas distributed widely over the globe. Gold occurs in association with ores of copper and lead, in quartz veins, in the gravel of stream beds, and with pyrites (iron sulfide).
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). Most of that gold has come from just three countries: China, Australia, and South Africa.
There is enough gold within Earth to cover the planet. According to Discover Magazine, there's a lot of gold on—or in—our planet: 99 percent of the precious metal can be found in the Earth's core. How much do you have? Enough gold to cover the entire Earth's surface in 1.5 feet of gold.
Elements that dissolve in iron, called siderophiles, are also found in the core. Because these elements are found much more rarely on Earth's crust, many siderophiles are classified as “precious metals.” Siderophile elements include gold, platinum, and cobalt.
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.
In our solar system alone, there is an asteroid between Mars and Jupiter named 16 Psyche that scientists believe contains more than 700 quintillion dollars in gold and other precious metals.
There are no naturally occurring processes that produce new gold… on Earth. The process by which gold is created takes place amongst the stars! Gold is formed when stars explode or collide, only then are the necessary energy and conditions right to create gold.
Where Does Gold Occur? All of the gold found on Earth came from the debris of dead stars. As the Earth formed, heavy elements such as iron and gold sank toward the planet's core. If no other event had occurred, there would be no gold in the Earth's crust.
It's likely that these gold particles were mixed up in a cosmic cloud of gas and dust expelled into space from the supernova that formed Earth. Over time, the gold sank to Earth's core but rose to the mantle and crust after asteroids hit the planet.
About 60% of Australia's gold resources occur in Western Australia, with the remainder in all other States and the Northern Territory. Virtually all resources occur in primary deposits, many of which have undergone some degree of weathering.
What Country Has the Most Gold? The country with the most gold is the United States, with 8,133 metric tons in the American gold reserve. This amounts to a value of $480.84 billion, going by the price of gold at the beginning of January 2023.
China may invade Taiwan, or it may not. Either way, there is financial uncertainty. Precious metals are the counterbalance to that uncertainty. Russia, China, Brazil, Egypt, India, Turkey, Qatar, and many other countries are stockpiling gold to overthrow the Dollar and ensure sovereignty.
The average concentration of gold in Earth's crust is 'very, very low,' at 4 parts per billion. In its elemental form, gold is significantly rarer than diamonds.
Estimates of the gold content of the earth's crust are in the range ~f 0.001 to 0.006 parts per million.
1. Gold is soluble in mercury, at 200 C., to the extent of about 0.06 per cent; this solubility increases to about 0.25 per cent at 1000 C., and probably decreases to zero at the freezing point of mercury. 2.
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. Only a few years ago, most geologists would have laughed at the idea of mining anything from our moon.
Adding or removing protons from a nucleus are types of nuclear reactions. As such, no series of chemical reactions can ever create gold. Chemical reactions change the number and shape of the electrons in an atom but leave the nucleus of the atom unchanged.
In addition, lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc, niobium, molybdenum, lanthanum, europium, tungsten, and gold have been found in trace amounts.
How much gold does that leave for other applications? New and innovative uses for gold are being discovered every day, uses that could jeopardize your ability to buy gold in the future. >> If current mining operations continue at the same pace, below-ground stocks could be depleted in less than 20 years.
Of course, the world cannot do without gold! Gold miners would go to work to recover more of the yellow metal, and new processes would be developed to extract gold from the sea and other sources.
Gold is thought to have been produced in supernova nucleosynthesis, and from the collision of neutron stars, and to have been present in the dust from which the Solar System formed.
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.
Astatine is the rarest naturally occurring element.
A massive gas giant orbiting a star about 855 light-years from Earth, WASP-121b may have metal clouds and rain made of liquid gems, according to new research. A study showing how water atmospherically cycles between the planet's two sides published Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy.