How much gold is there in the world?

[Neil]

By Ed Prio

Imagine if you were a super-villain who had taken control of all the world's gold, and had decided to melt it down to make a cube. How big would it be? Hundreds of metres, thousands even?

Actually, it's unlikely to be anything like that size.

Warren Buffett, one of the world's richest investors, says the total amount of gold in the world - the gold above ground, that is - could fit into a cube with sides of just 20m (67ft).

But is that all there is? And if so, how do we know?

A figure that is widely used by investors comes from Thomson Reuters GFMS, which produces an annual gold survey.

Their latest figure for all the gold in the world is 171,300 tonnes - which is almost exactly the same as the amount in our super-villain's imaginary cube.

A cube made of 171,300 tonnes would be about 20.7m (68ft) on each side. Or to put it another way, it would reach to 9.8m above ground level if exactly covering Wimbledon Centre Court.

But not everyone agrees with the GFMS figures.

Estimates range from 155,244 tonnes, marginally less than the GFMS figure, to about 16 times that amount - 2.5 million tonnes.

That bigger figure would make a cube of sides 50m (166ft) long, or a column of gold towering 143m above Wimbledon centre court.

 
So why are the figures so different?

Part of the reason is that gold has been mined for a very long time - more than 6,000 years, according to gold historian Timothy Green.

All the gold that has been mined throughout history is still in existence.
 
The first gold coins were minted in about 550 BC under King Croesus of Lydia - a province in modern-day Turkey - and quickly became accepted payment for merchants and mercenary soldiers around the Mediterranean.

Up until 1492, the year Columbus sailed to America, GFMS estimates that 12,780 tonnes had been extracted.

But one investor who looked at the research done in this area, James Turk, the founder of Gold Money, discovered what he regarded as a series of over-estimates.

He believes that the primitive mining techniques used up to the Middle Ages mean that this figure is much too high, and that a more realistic total is just 297 tonnes.
 
His figure for the overall amount of gold in the world is 155,244 tonnes - 16,056 tonnes, or 10% less, than the assessment by Thompson Reuters GFMS. A relatively small disparity, perhaps, but one that at today's prices comes to more than $950bn.

His conclusions are accepted by some investors but such is the feeling between rival analysts that one competitor described Turk's figures as an alternative to the GFMS's "in the same way that Jedi is an alternative to Christianity".

But there are others who think both sets of figures are too low.

"In Tutankhamen's tomb alone they found that his coffin was made from 1.5 tonnes of gold, so imagine the gold that was found in the other tombs that were ransacked before records were taken of them," says Jan Skoyles of gold investment firm The Real Asset Company.

While James Turk makes only minor adjustments to the GFMS figure for the amount of gold mined after 1492, Skoyles points out that even today China is "not particularly open" about how much gold it is mining.

And in some countries, such as Colombia, "there's a lot of illegal mining going on", she says.

She doesn't have an exact figure to offer, but one organisation that has tried to do some maths is the Gold Standard Institute.

 There is much gold still in the ground, like here in Democratic Republic of Congo
Its experts believe that if we emptied our bank vaults and jewellery boxes, we'd find no less than 2.5 million tonnes of gold - though they admit that the evidence is somewhat sparse and the figure is a bit speculative.

So who's right?

Well, we don't know.

In the end, all these numbers are made up of estimates added to estimates added to yet more estimates. Maybe they're all way off.

The good news is that we are not likely to run out of gold any time soon. The US Geological Survey estimates there are 52,000 tonnes of minable gold still in the ground and more is likely to be discovered.

The bad news is that the way we use gold is starting to change.
 
Up to now it has never gone away. It has always been recycled.

"All the gold that has been mined throughout history is still in existence in the above-ground stock. That means that if you have a gold watch, some of the gold in that watch could have been mined by the Romans 2,000 years ago," says James Turk.

The way gold is being used in the technology industry, however, is different.

The British Geological Survey states that about 12% of current world gold production finds its way to this sector, where it is often used in such small quantities, in each individual product, that it may no longer be economical to recycle it.

In short, gold may be being "consumed" for the first time.

[Dryland]

How is Badger going to get all that gold in his living room ?

[HiHoSilver]

It's Ed Prior and here's the original article:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21969100

I believe it's nearer the 2.5m tonnes mark, but it's like diamonds where they claim they are extremely rare and hold back so much of them to keep the prices high. There's also lots and lots of gold particles in the sea but no cost effective way to retrieve it... yet.

 

[Tafflaff (Rob)]

And did you know that all the worlds gold and platinum didnt arrive on earth until 200 million years after earths formation. 

[outlaw]

Gordon Brown under the labour party sold off all the uk's gold reserves hoping to make some money, however he got it wrong and lost our money ! Pretty tipical of the Labour party 

[Chef Geoff]

And did you know that all the worlds gold and platinum didnt arrive on earth until 200 million years after earths formation. 

Wrong!
It's estimated that there is far more "natural" gold than has come by way of meteorites etc......BUT as it was part of earth's molten state, it sank to the core, never to be retrieved.

[Tafflaff (Rob)]

And did you know that all the worlds gold and platinum didnt arrive on earth until 200 million years after earths formation. 

Wrong!
It's estimated that there is far more "natural" gold than has come by way of meteorites etc......BUT as it was part of earth's molten state, it sank to the core, never to be retrieved.

Oh well my degree material is rubbish then

[Tafflaff (Rob)]

And did you know that all the worlds gold and platinum didnt arrive on earth until 200 million years after earths formation. 

Wrong!
It's estimated that there is far more "natural" gold than has come by way of meteorites etc......BUT as it was part of earth's molten state, it sank to the core, never to be retrieved.

Oh well my degree material is rubbish then

Oh no wait.......... I read my books poorly and Chef is right. I'm of to look for a waaa waaa &*$ waaaaaaaaaa soundclip.

[Val Beechey]

Talking of re-cycled gold, does anyone remember the stink about Nazi gold being I.D'd in the Swiss banks ??
Now that's one gruesome way to re-cycle.  How about having some of that in your gold watch.

Val

[dances with badgers]

ITS MINE ALL MINE I TELL YAAA OOOOOOOH HA HA HA  .
 it said on Q I once that all the gold ever mined would fill two olympic sized swimming pools.i just want a paddlin pool full lol

[probono]

I work in the semiconductor industry (if you drive on the M4, it's that big shed at j24 opposite Celtic Manor) - and last year I spent quite a lot of time consuming microscopic amounts of gold (the layer was about 0.2 of a micron, which itself is a 1000th of a mm). We didn't recover that gold, but 'in the field' - i.e that particular company that we sell tools to does recover the gold from the chamber.

As I'm sure a lot of you know, gold is often used on contacts - the other day I was cutting up an old credit card, and decided to look at the chip - the wires used to connect the chip to the contacts you see on the surface are at least gold plated.....

[colin]

what about computer circuit boards is that gold or just plated
 

[probono]

what about computer circuit boards is that gold or just plated
 

Most is just plated - on some earlier boards / machines the tinest wires which connect the 'chip' proper with the outside world are solid. I'm convinced that given the number of pins on a CPU nowadays that they are just plated - but it all adds up - there are people who sell on eBay pounds and pounds of scrap boards, for people to recover the gold, although I wouldn't recommend it - partly because of the chemicals needs and partly because the returns are too small.

[dances with badgers]

i agree have looked into it,you need various dodgy chemicals to process the chips and motherboards also once the gold has been smelted into a nugget its hard to get a dealer to buy it,there is one guy in cardiff but cant remember his name.

[probono]

i agree have looked into it,you need various dodgy chemicals to process the chips and motherboards also once the gold has been smelted into a nugget its hard to get a dealer to buy it,there is one guy in cardiff but cant remember his name.

Of course one of the problems is that you don't have any markings to show what the carat is. Most jewellers wouldn't then take that - and additionally they wouldn't usually give you a good price for that either.

I remember one shop in Cardiff offering me £30 for a post 1900 and £35 for a pre 1900 sovereign.......I just wish now that I had bought loads of Lloyd Bennett when he was selling them for £46 a pop....