What Is the Real Amount of Gold That Exists on Earth?

Written by Fabio Lucas Carvalho

Published on 17/06/2025 at 21:24

Updated on 17/06/2025 at 21:35

Foto: Reprodução

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Even After Centuries of Mining, Most of the Earth’s Gold Remains Inaccessible, Hidden in the Core and Spread in Particles in the Crust

Gold has always sparked human interest, but its distribution on the planet shows that there is still much to be understood. It is estimated that most of this precious metal is in inaccessible locations, well beyond the Earth’s crust.

Current Extraction and Known Reserves

According to the U.S. Geological Survey and the World Gold Council, humanity has extracted between 206,000 and 238,000 tons.

However, current exploitable reserves amount to only about 70,550 tons. Most of them are concentrated in countries like Russia, Australia, and South Africa.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

Low Concentration in the Earth’s Crust

The Earth’s crust has very little gold scattered in the rocks. On average, there are only 4 parts of gold for every billion parts of rock. This means that if you had 1 billion grams of rock (1,000 tons), you would find only 4 grams of gold within all of that.

The metal is dispersed in small particles, both in rocks and in oceans.

Cosmic Origin of the Metal

The origin of gold goes far beyond the Earth. According to the most accepted scientific theory, gold forms in collisions between neutron stars — rare and extremely violent events in the Universe.

At those moments, the so-called nucleosynthesis via rapid neutron capture occurs, a process capable of generating heavy elements like the metal.

These elements are then ejected into space and can be incorporated into forming planets. That is how gold came to Earth — and that is why it is so rare.

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What Is the Real Amount of Gold That Exists on Earth?

Even After Centuries of Mining, Most of the Earth’s Gold Remains Inaccessible, Hidden in the Core and Spread in Particles in the Crust

Current Extraction and Known Reserves

Low Concentration in the Earth’s Crust

Cosmic Origin of the Metal

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What Is the Real Amount of Gold That Exists on Earth?

Even After Centuries of Mining, Most of the Earth’s Gold Remains Inaccessible, Hidden in the Core and Spread in Particles in the Crust

Current Extraction and Known Reserves

Low Concentration in the Earth’s Crust

Cosmic Origin of the Metal

Seen from space, an image taken by an astronaut shows an unlikely oasis in the Saudi Arabian desert, protected by a terrain that slows the advance of sand, surrounded by green circles, remnants of an extinct lake and nearly 10,000 years of preserved history.

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The Blood Falls of Antarctica hide a living ecosystem trapped under the ice for over 2 million years, where microbes survive without light, without oxygen, and without ever having seen the Sun.

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