Science & Technology

How much of the Earth's gold reserves have we found and how much is left ?

By T.K. Randall
April 8, 2023 ·  2 comments

Could we run out of gold to mine ? Image Credit: Pixabay / Stevebidmead For thousands of years, mankind has been obsessed with finding gold - whether it be for creating jewelry, building modern electronic components or simply as a way of obtaining wealth.

Our own planet is home to quite a significant quantity of gold, but the actual amount that has been mined to date is perhaps a lot less than you might think.

If you took all the gold ever mined and made it into a solid cube, the cube would only measure 23x23x23 meters ( or 75x75x75 feet ).

Due to to the density of gold, however, this cube would weigh a whopping 187,000 tons.In total, around 57,000 tons of gold is still waiting to be dug up from mines around the world - a feat that could potentially be achieved within as little as 20 years.

Beyond that, there are significant additional supplies of gold under the ground and beneath the ocean, but most if that would be too expensive or impractical to actually acquire.

There is also the possibility of mining gold off-world - deposits can be found on the Moon and there are countless asteroids flying around that would put the Earth's entire supply to shame.

Without advanced spacefaring technology, however, obtaining any of that will likely remain the stuff of science-fiction for the foreseeable future.

Source: IFL Science | Comments (2)

Tags: Gold