Gold Facts and Figures

I was curious about how much gold there was in the world. I found this site and this site helpful.

1) How many tonnes of mined gold is there in the world? 145,000 tonnes

2) How much tonnes of unmined gold is there in the world? 100,000 tonnes

3) What is the value of all the mined gold in the world? $1.9 Trillion ($425 troy oz * 32,000 troy oz/tonnes * 142,000 tonnes = $1.9 tril)

4) If all the mined gold was put into a cube, how large would it be? A cube of 19.47 meters sides (63' 10") (that seems tiny when you figure 63' is about the height of a 6 story building, so just think of a cube that size and that is all the gold in the world)

5) If we were to evenly distribute the gold between all people in the world how much would there be? 145,000 tonnes / 6 bil people = 24 gm/person or .77 Troy Ounces (31.1035 grammes) or put another way 4 6 gram rings (I think 6 grams is about avg for a ring)

6) How many tons of ore are mined for each ton of gold produced? 303,000 tons. That is a crazy statistic! By far the highest ratio for any metal used.

7) How much ore needs to be mined to find enough gold for a pair of wedding rings? 10x6x6 cubic feet of ore. I think that is about the amount of space that 60 6' tall people would take up. The last two answers come from the book Eco-Economy which is a really good read.

Interesting, huh?