So we've estimated that within 4000m of the surface of Earth's crust there is 35 billion tons of gold. With a remaining 87 billion under the ocean. Only a small portion of that is concentrated enough to mine. Its a big world out there and we've only properly explored small pockets of it.
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.
A group of experts have concluded that the current increased production rate will lead to the depletion of some finite resources, including gold. Just how scarce are our gold reserves? Well, a group of scientists have set a date for the disappearance of the rare metal, and that is just 27 years away, in 2050.
According to these approximate figures, there is still about 20% of the world's gold that needs to be mined. However, this is a moving number. New technologies may make it possible to extract some known reserves, which are currently uneconomical.
The largest known deposits of gold appear on two continents, Africa and India. In these two regions, South Africa has the largest concentration of gold with the town of Johannesburg being built over the worlds largest gold deposit.
Gold Reserves in China averaged 1140.48 Tonnes from 2000 until 2023, reaching an all time high of 2068.36 Tonnes in the first quarter of 2023 and a record low of 395.01 Tonnes in the second quarter of 2000.
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).
The short answer to the questions posed in this article title is: Yes! gold traces have indeed been identified within the lunar soil. Back in October 2009, NASA conducted a mission called LCROSS, which involved crashing a booster rocket into the Moon at nearly 6,000 miles per hour.
24-karat gold is pure (while 100% purity is unattainable, this designation is permitted in commerce for 99.95% purity), 18-karat gold is 18 parts gold, 6 parts another metal (forming an alloy with 75% gold), 12-karat gold is 12 parts gold (12 parts another metal), and so forth.
As 100% pure gold is virtually impossible to achieve, the purest type of gold currently commercially available is 999.99. This is sometimes referred to as five nines fine. The Royal Canadian Mint regularly produces commemorative coins from this fine gold.
However, you can even prolong this with proper care and maintenance, and there's no reason why it wouldn't last a lifetime. Gold is, after all, among the most valuable resources in the world thanks to its durability properties, and as long as it's cared for properly, it can last a very long time.
What makes Dahlonega gold so different from other gold found around the world is the purity. Dahlonega has the purest gold in the world, which is 98.7 percent pure.
Gold Can't Be Destroyed, only Dissolved
Pure gold is virtually indestructible. It will not corrode, rust or tarnish, and fire cannot destroy it. This is why all of the gold extracted from the earth is still melted, re-melted and used over and over again.
Gold has retained its value throughout history, partly due to the fact that it is indestructible. That means that virtually all the gold in the world that has been mined is still around in one form or another. Some of it may have turned into jewelry, while some might be sitting inside vaults as bullion.
There is no shortage of gold on earth. The problem is that it is much deeper than we can mine. Current scientific theories estimate that there is enough gold in the core to cover the surface of the earth with a 4 meter thick layer of pure gold.
If translated into numbers, platinum—for all of its known deposits—is considerably more rare than gold and is the rarest metal of all.
Gold is rare throughout the Universe because it's a relatively hefty atom, consisting of 79 protons and 118 neutrons. That makes it hard to produce, even in the incredible heat and pressure of the 'chemical forges' of supernovae, the deaths of giant stars responsible for creating most chemical elements.
Can't Scientists Make Gold? Believe it or not, scientists have found the ability to create gold from other elements, Isaac Newton would be jealous! But to do so requires a nuclear reaction, a process so intense that economically it makes no sense to create gold to sell.
Magnesium, aluminium, titanium, iron, and chromium are relatively common in them. In addition, lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc, niobium, molybdenum, lanthanum, europium, tungsten, and gold have been found in trace amounts.
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. That's a lot of wedding bands and gold crowns!
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.
Gold. Chrysopoeia, the artificial production of gold, is the symbolic goal of alchemy. Such transmutation is possible in particle accelerators or nuclear reactors, although the production cost is currently many times the market price of gold.
Gold Discovery in Egypt
They mined gold in Nubia around 2450 BC. An Egyptian alchemist named Zosimos was the first to find pure gold (24 centuries before Columbus reached the Americas). The discovery of gold is attributed to the ancient Egyptians, who made jewelry out of gold.
All of the gold that's deposited in our planet was formed during the explosions of stars and collisions of asteroids, and eventually found its way to earth over time. Today, gold is one of the most valuable precious metals and rarest natural minerals.