Where does all the gold come from?
frostbyte
Posts: 170
They just keep making more and more PM coins, but where do they get the material from to do this year after year?
Beginner that wants to learn.
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Comments
JJ
I've been told I tolerate fools poorly...that may explain things if I have a problem with you. Current ebay items - Nothing at the moment
The take it from dead peoples fillings, and make coins out of it. DUH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The really funny thing is that some of their customers actually believe it.
Coin's for sale/trade.
Tom Pilitowski
US Rare Coin Investments
800-624-1870
Proud recipient of two "You Suck" awards
Chance favors the prepared mind.
Tons per year of gold by country!
Chance favors the prepared mind.
Astronomers now suggest that the heaviest elements such as gold, platinum, and palladium may have been formed in the early universe as a result of neutron star collisions. These neutron-rich explosions caused by the spiraling together of neutron stars were the most powerful explosions in the universe, and probably accounted for the formation of the neutron-rich heavy elements such as gold.
Dr. Stephen Rosswog from the University of Leicester in England described this in an April 5th interview on National Public Radio (U.S.):
“This is a collision of a special kind of stars. They have masses like our sun, approximately, but a diameter of, say, 20 kilometers or something, so it’s superdense. So one teaspoon of material has a weight of billions of tons. When they collide and eject material and this material becomes decompressed, this is just an ideal environment for the formation of these heavy elements.”
All matter on Earth, and the rest of the universe, is the remnants or ashes of these cosmic events. We’ve known for a while that solitary explosions of supernovas were the source of elements such as carbon, and now it seems that the collisions of supernovas are the likely source of gold and the heavy elements of the platinum group.
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Where does gold come from? Part 2
Gold was the original recyclable substance. Because it is soft and easy to work with, whatever one makes out of gold, whether jewelry or artwork, gold is always easily repaired, or worked into a new shape entirely. And because of its scarcity, old gold is never thrown away, but instead is always recycled. Today, all the gold in the world would form a cube approximately 50 feet on each side, that would fit easily underneath the Eiffel Tower.
The gold bullion and coins that you see today may be made of newly-mined gold, but they may just as easily contain gold from the past. When Pizarro conquered Peru in 1531, golden treasures to fill a room 17 feet by 22 feet were converted to bullion bars (it took a whole month to melt down the Inca temple ornaments, animal sculptures, goblets, and other treasures) and hauled back to Spain. South America was the most important source of gold for the European money markets for centuries. At that time, a rich person was commonly described as being ‘worth a Peru.’
Much of the gold that we use has a long history. Today’s gold supply, in addition to the 2,400 tons newly mined every year, includes old lost treasures, plunder from ancient tombs, melted coins from antiquity, dowries, tributes, ransoms, and all the gold found, mined, and stolen over the centuries.
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Where does gold come from? Part 3
Alluvial or placer gold is gold that is found ‘loose’ on this planet, usually in the form of pieces as fine as flour up to nuggets weighing a few grams or, very rarely, up to a few pounds. This is raw, native gold that was long ago loosened from the ore which once contained it, usually by the action of wind and water. Placer gold has been our traditional source of gold over the millennia. Deep mining, which is responsible for South Africa’s vast gold production today, wasn’t started until the late 1800’s.
Placer gold is often found in streambeds, both flowing and dry. Its rounded shapes are the products of thousands or millions of years of weathering. Most placer gold as it comes from the ground is 70% to 95% pure gold, depending on where its found.
Here in Arizona, quite a bit of alluvial gold has been mined over the years. The earliest Anglo settlements in Arizona were established in the 1860’s near the gold diggings around what is now Prescott. Gold and copper mining were the impetus to early settlers in Arizona, bringing first the Spanish and then the English, Chinese, and various European expatriates, many of whom were fresh off a stint in the California gold fields in the early 1850’s.
Today in Arizona there are still some profitable smaller-size gold mines, and gold and silver are by-products of this state’s huge copper pit-mining operations. Many commercial gravel dredge operations here yield their owners a bit of gold. Most sunny weekends bring out the gold panners, sluice operators, and treasure hunters wielding metal detectors, each out in Arizona’s vast remote areas of desert and forest, looking to add a bit of color to his or her poke.
San Diego, CA
Antique Fishing Lures
asteroid mining
Hoard the keys.
Not to contradict anyone but 20 years ago I read that all of the gold in the world would occupy a 2700 foot cube.
Chance favors the prepared mind.
............1 inch deep on the football field for platinum and
............all the Radium ever mined can fit inside a golf ball!!
We need a young physicist to update these Fermi estimates!!
Proud recipient of two "You Suck" awards
San Diego, CA
Aluminum was $1000/lb once, then a new extraction discovery sent its price plummeting to present levels.
Proud recipient of two "You Suck" awards
<< <i>" Today, all the gold in the world would form a cube approximately 50 feet on each side, that would fit easily underneath the Eiffel Tower. "
Not to contradict anyone but 20 years ago I read that all of the gold in the world would occupy a 2700 foot cube. >>
Was that possibly a 2700 square foot sided cube?
Proud recipient of two "You Suck" awards
<< <i>
<< <i>" Today, all the gold in the world would form a cube approximately 50 feet on each side, that would fit easily underneath the Eiffel Tower. " Not to contradict anyone but 20 years ago I read that all of the gold in the world would occupy a 2700 foot cube. >>
Was that possibly a 2700 square foot sided cube? >>
did you try to say 2700 cubic feet which would be 30 feet on each side?
<< <i>
<< <i>
<< <i>" Today, all the gold in the world would form a cube approximately 50 feet on each side, that would fit easily underneath the Eiffel Tower. " Not to contradict anyone but 20 years ago I read that all of the gold in the world would occupy a 2700 foot cube. >>
Was that possibly a 2700 square foot sided cube? >>
did you try to say 27000 cubic feet which would be 30 feet on each side? >>
<< <i>Costco of course, isn't that where everybody gets everything.
I would take the US Mint more for Walmart shoppers. Don't mind a trifle bit of Chinese lead in the mix do ya?
NSDR - Life Member
SSDC - Life Member
ANA - Pay As I Go Member
<< <i>
<< <i>
<< <i>
<< <i>" Today, all the gold in the world would form a cube approximately 50 feet on each side, that would fit easily underneath the Eiffel Tower. " Not to contradict anyone but 20 years ago I read that all of the gold in the world would occupy a 2700 foot cube. >>
Was that possibly a 2700 square foot sided cube? >>
did you try to say 27000 cubic feet which would be 30 feet on each side? >>
>>
Actually they said a one half mile cube.
When I think about it though a 50 foot cube, 50 x 50 x 50 = 125,000 cubic feet. If gold weight 450 pounds per cubic foot that would be over 56 million pounds of gold or 28,000 tons in that 50 foot cube.
Chance favors the prepared mind.
<< <i>The pot at the end of the rainbow Duh! >>
Pot? We're talking gold here. Gold pot?
Coin's for sale/trade.
Tom Pilitowski
US Rare Coin Investments
800-624-1870
Anyway, it's not really all that much, whatever estimate is given.
John Marnard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace, 1920, page 235ff
Russ, NCNE
<< <i>
Actually they said a one half mile cube.
When I think about it though a 50 foot cube, 50 x 50 x 50 = 125,000 cubic feet. If gold weight 450 pounds per cubic foot that would be over 56 million pounds of gold or 28,000 tons in that 50 foot cube. >>
To put this in perspective though, there are single plants which can process this much iron in a day.
Rocks!
Leo
The more qualities observed in a coin, the more desirable that coin becomes!
My Jefferson Nickel Collection
<< <i>BTW, Scientific American article about 20 years ago analyzed the effect of mining gold on a near-Earth asteroid. It would wreak havoc on the precious metals market. The assay on some asteroids is better than for existing gold mines!! >>
So? I saw "GO FOR IT". No need to protect people's little areas at the expense of others.
I've been told I tolerate fools poorly...that may explain things if I have a problem with you. Current ebay items - Nothing at the moment
<< <i>did you try to say 27000 cubic feet which would be 30 feet on each side? >>
No- I wasn't clear. I meant a cube with each face being 2700 square feet. The figure you originally questioned (50 feet on each side) would equal 2500 square feet per face which is close to your 2700 figure, which didn't specify whether that was square or cubic feet.
They go on to say this:
50% of all gold ever produced was produced since 1960
80% of all gold ever produced was produced since 1900
Chance favors the prepared mind.
With 2500 tons of gold mined each year, and more than that used, gold has been in a deficit situation for a number of years. I look at gold "inflation" as 2-3% per year. The dollar inflation is multiples of that.
roadrunner
Let me add to the confusion.
All the gold would make a cube 60 feet per side.
Gold weighs 1245 lbs per cubic foot. (I just weighed a my cubic yard and divided by 27)
All the worlds mined gold would weigh 134,260 tons.
Fred, Las Vegas, NV
Soon they will all be a yard wide and a mile deep.
"Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working" Pablo Picasso
Check out my current listings: https://ebay.com/sch/khunt/m.html?_ipg=200&_sop=12&_rdc=1
<<About one percent of all above ground gold (370 metric tonnes) was mined in the first five years of the California Gold Rush.>>
Man, that California Gold Rush must have been wild!