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How much gold has been found in the world?

usgs.gov

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Re: How much gold has been found in the world?

#41

Post by Scarblac »

yabones wrote: post #20
gffrd wrote: post #11

So … like $12,000,000,000,000 of gold? I'm not sure if that's more or less than I'd expect.

It's definitely less than the world's total GDP, considering that China and the USA are both at or above that. So, it would not be possible for every country to have a gold-backed currency without a major decline in wealth. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nomi... (Disclaimer, I am in no way an economist :) )

I'm not sure there is such a direct relation between GDP and amount of money in circulation. The same $1 can be spent many times in a year and add to GDP each time.

(I also wish we would stop thinking in terms of GDP, or that it's better to have a higher one)

Re: How much gold has been found in the world?

#42

Post by Xophmeister »

FooBarWidget wrote: post #26
azuredragon wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To put that into perspective, that’s only enough gold to bathe 3 metric Scrooge McDucks!

Does that mean that it's not enough to fill his money bin?

Maybe if we take into account the packing coefficient of coins and other miscellaneous booty it works out.

Re: How much gold has been found in the world?

#43

Post by yabones »

machina_ex_deus wrote: post #35
yabones wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's definitely less than the world's total GDP, considering that China and the USA are both at or above that. So, it would not be possible for every country to have a gold-backed currency without a major decline in wealth. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nomi... (Disclaimer, I am in no way an economist :) )

This is circular reasoning, because if the currencies were backed by gold, its price would skyrocket to fit the GDP. You can't compare price of gold as a speculative investment to price of gold backing an entire financial system.

That does make sense... Is there any estimation for how much gold _would_ be required to for every country on the planet to have a gold-backed currency?

Re: How much gold has been found in the world?

#45

Post by lastofthemojito »

I went on a tour of a disused gold mine near Dahlonega, Georgia (a town that sprung up due to the Georgia Gold Rush of the early 19th century). During the tour the guide pointed out little flecks of gold in the wall and mentioned that the property likely still had billions of dollars worth of gold in it, but the low hanging fruit had already been plucked, and the cost of extraction of the rest would be too high. That's pretty wild to me, that you can know where BILLIONS of dollars of gold is, but not get at it. On the other hand, thinking of how dangerous and expensive mining must be, it's not entirely surprising.

Re: How much gold has been found in the world?

#46

Post by rz2k »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #38
rz2k wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A little over 1.5 cubic meters per person. In "football fields", the gold would be over 430 ft high.

If there are only 8000 people. I think you dropped some zeroes in your calculation.

So that's what the E-06 means on the calculator's answer! :(

That did seem surprising, and the actual number would be closer to a third of a teaspoon per person.

Re: How much gold has been found in the world?

#47

Post by sushiburps »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #19

Any idea how this compares to other similar elements (e.g., silver, platinum, and so on)? What is there more of, but higher demand, such that its value is generally higher than gold?

Platinum ~10,000 metric tons, or a cube 7.7m on each side. [1,2,3]

Silver ~1,740,000 metric tons, or a cube 55m on each side. [3,4]

Link 3 has a neat visual of the silver, gold, and platinum cubes side-by-side (a tad bit out of date).

[1]: https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/pp1802N

[2]: https://sdbullion.com/blog/how-much-platinum-is-in-the-world

[3]: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-platinum-series-the-his...

[4]: https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/how-much-silver-has-been-found-wor...

Re: How much gold has been found in the world?

#48

Post by valleyer »

tpmx wrote: post #14
euroderf wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(I believe the adverbial form would be "exemplarily", and for daily, "dailily")

Ah, thanks! (Not a native speaker.)

FWIW, they are either joking or just wrong about "dailily". "Daily" by itself is a perfectly fine adverb, and I've never heard or seen "dailily".

To prevent cavities, brush your teeth twice daily.

Re: How much gold has been found in the world?

#49

Post by jrumbut »

DoingIsLearning wrote: post #39
TacticalCoder wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm not sure if that's more or less than I'd expect. Most people "owning" gold in the world hold paper gold that isn't backed by physical gold. And the paper gold volume traded on a daily basis is several orders of magnitude higher than the physical one. So even if it's less physical gold than one would expect (I didn't check you maths btw), there's "more" to it than just the physical gold.

Perhaps a stupid question from a non-economics laymen: If people are holding 'paper' gold that isn't backed by physical gold, then doesn't that mean that gold as a product is more scarce than the market demand? Wouldn't it mean that by increase the volume of 'paper' gold assets we are artificially pricing gold incorrectly?

But the market is for paper gold, so the price is for paper gold.

Realistically, if you want some actual gold a lot of that price is going to be about delivery, storage, verification, etc, etc. The paper gold probably helps divert people who just want to bet on the price of gold away from the people who actually gold to do work (though inevitably the two groups will affect the price the other pays).

Re: How much gold has been found in the world?

#50

Post by subsubzero »

theandrewbailey wrote: post #3

In more everyday terms: > If it were brought together, all the gold deposits ever mined would fill just a little over three Olympic-sized swimming pools. Another analogy is that all global gold ever mined would be only one metre high if spread across a football pitch. https://www.bullionbypost.co.uk/index/gold/how-much-gold-has...

Given people have been mining and coveting gold for thousands of years that is an incredibly small amount given the scale of the earth and other mineral deposits. Looking at gold's well known cousin - Silver which from the beginning of time has seen 1.5 Million tons mined, interestingly enough 90% of that amount has been thrown away - https://www.jmbullion.com/investing-guide/james/silver-suppl...
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