Amount of gold in the world - National Geographic Explorer

[Ozwest]

Not a gold mine, no. Been to a few large quarries though. Impressive sights for sure.

Read the article. If it is factual (I assume it is), it explains that the only gold being mined these days is in very, very small amounts and requires chemical processes to extract it. The days of digging out big motherlode nuggets apparently are over.

We dig in West Australia. We are the best and most efficient miners in the world.

Bet your sweet ass.

 

[Allen72289]

We dig in West Australia. We are the best and most efficient miners in the world.

Bet your sweet ass.

How is perth?

Devil, using cyanide leech process costs into the millions, it's rarely done because the government regulation. There is a mine 65 miles southeast of my mine that is on 68 acres, it will employ 50 people for the next 5 years and they're using the cyanide leech ponds and were fined 2 million dollars just to use cyanide.

 

[Ozwest]

How is perth?

Devil, using cyanide leech process costs into the millions, it's rarely done because the government regulation. There is a mine 65 miles southeast of my mine that is on 68 acres, it will employ 50 people for the next 5 years and they're using the cyanide leech ponds and were fined 2 million dollars just to use cyanide.

I am living in Bunbury now.

Fishing the Southwest coast.

Lived in Perth for 15 years.

Thanks for asking.

 

[Allen72289]

I am living in Bunbury now.

Fishing the Southwest coast.

Lived in Perth for 15 years.

Thanks for asking.

No, I meant is there an economic boom in perth?


Sounds nice, how's the tax rate over there?

 

[Ozwest]

Umm... Not as good as it was. We were selling iron ore to the Chinese big time.

Compared to the rest, we are certainly competitive.

The best thing is... We take no shit from our Government.

This is a ripper country.

 

[Ozwest]

No, I meant is there an economic boom in perth?


Sounds nice, how's the tax rate over there?

I talked to my brother in Albuquerque (lived their for 6 years) and tried to convince him to move to Oz.

He has a girlfriend and is an accountant for the Government.

Hard sell.

 

[Allen72289]

Last I heard was the amount of mined gold would fill two olympic swimming pools.

NatGeo also featured a gold story as the front page of the latest magazine as well. It wasn't very flattering. Here's the online link:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/01/gold/larmer-text

I just read the article and it's pure environmentalist bullshit. While traveling to fossil oregon I stopped in a local coin shop. The man had pictures of MOUNDS of nuggets from a mine that did 1000 ounces a month. The mine was on private property though.

What about gold, Oz?

Perth looks awfully nice.. mm gold yay.. shtf

 

[John of Des Moines]

That is diddly squat.

I live in West Australia, and we mine some minerals here.

Ever been to a open cut mine?

I've drive over an open cut gravel mine: http://www.mapquest.com/maps?city=Thornton&state=IL&address=Brown+Derby+Rd+And+Ridge+Rd.#a/maps/l::Brown+Derby+Rd+&+W+Margaret+St:Thornton:IL:60476:US:41.56839:-87.62468:intersection:Cook+County:1/m:sat:12:41.574548:-87.6245:0:::::/io:0:::::f:EN:M:/e

 

[Zippyjuan]

Apparently Australia digs about ten percent of the world's gold production and as of this past July their production had fallen by 7% on the previous year. http://www.goldworld.com/articles/australian-gold-production/286
2008 set to be their worst production in 20 years. http://www.news.com.au/business/story/0,27753,24694591-462,00.html

"It looks as though Australia's gold production for the full 2008 year will be the lowest since 1989," Dr Close said.

"It will be somewhere between 25 to 30 per cent lower than the peak year of 1997."

so they seem to be finding less and less of it. It looks like global production peaked in the late 1990s according to this chart:

http://www.goldsheetlinks.com/production2.htm

In the last couple of years, the US and China have moved ahead of Australia in terms of their gold production. http://www.mineweb.co.za/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page34?oid=15930&sn=Detail

 

[rockandrollsouls]

Gold is 19.2 times denser than water and one cubic foot weighs 1206 pounds


There are estimates that only 10% of the world's gold has ever been mined.

This sounds accurate. That gold some of you have could contain gold from old jewelery or ancient coins. It's constantly reused and melted down.

 

[Zippyjuan]

Obviously trying to measure what has not been discovered yet is purely guess work. You don't know how much has not been mined until you have mined it all up.

 

[jonahtrainer]

so they seem to be finding less and less of it. It looks like global production peaked in the late 1990s according to this chart

Gold production is down because the price has been artificially suppressed by central bank leasing since the early 1990's.

 

[Paulitician]

Yeah, that surprised me. I always got the sense that there existed much more gold than that... maybe its the gold-plating that confused me...

 

[ILUVRP]

Kitco gold "gold fundamentals 2"

In the entire history of the world, analysts estimate that about 162,500 metric tons of gold have been mined. Incidentally gold is so dense that a metric ton of it will fit in a solid cube less than 15 inches square. Thus all the gold ever mined anywhere would fit in a cube less than 67 feet per side! Of this global above-ground gold supply, as of Q3 2008 the world’s central banks held 29,784t. Thus the CBs control just 18% of the world’s total above-ground gold. Investors control a far-greater 82%.

 

[Zippyjuan]

Don't forget art and manfacturing uses too.