How Much Gold is Still in the Earth? The Truth About Unmined Gold Quantities

Well, y’see, there’s still a heap o’ gold buried down deep in the ground, more than folks think. Now, you might be wonderin’, “How much gold is left on Earth?” and I’m here to tell ya what I’ve heard from those fancy folks over at the U.S. Geological Survey and such. According to ’em, there’s still ’round 63,000 tons of gold sittin’ underground. Yep, you heard that right, 63,000 tons! That’s a lot, don’t it sound like it?

Now, don’t go thinkin’ all that gold is just sittin’ there, easy to grab. Nope. It’s a lot deeper in the ground than the gold folks’ve already dug up, and it ain’t so easy to get at. Most of it’s way down under, hidden real deep where folks can’t just dig with a shovel or pickaxe. It’s gonna take big fancy machines and a lotta money to get to that gold. It’s all in spots where people gotta work hard to reach it.

The thing is, we’ve already dug up a lot of gold over the years. People have been takin’ it out of the ground for centuries now, and estimates say we’ve already gotten about 206,000 tons of gold from the Earth. That’s a lot too, ain’t it? But even with all that gold gone, there’s still plenty left, but it’s deeper and harder to get. It’s kinda like that big old apple tree in the yard—you’ve picked most of the low-hanging fruit, but there’s still some up high that’s tough to reach, but it’s there if you try hard enough.

In fact, if you take a good look at how much gold gets dug up each year, you’ll see it’s not as much as you’d think. Back in 2019, the total gold mined was just about 3,531 tons. That’s actually a little less than what they got the year before. So, it’s clear, it ain’t like we’re diggin’ it up faster than it can be found. And the folks at places like the BBC and learnaboutgold say there’s still a good chunk of gold left to be pulled outta the ground, but who knows how many years it’ll take to get it all.

Now, where’s all this gold hiding, you ask? Well, folks say that Australia’s sittin’ on the biggest pile of unmined gold. They reckon there’s around 8,400 tons just waitin’ to be found. Followin’ behind ‘em is Russia, with about 6,800 tons, and South Africa’s sittin’ on another 5,000 tons or so. But don’t go thinkin’ that’s all the gold left on Earth! Like I said, there’s plenty more, it’s just tucked away in places where people can’t get to it easy.

But I gotta tell ya, there ain’t no clear answer on just how much gold is left to be dug up. It’s all kinda guesswork. Some reports say there’s somewhere between 52,000 and 63,000 tons still out there, but no one knows for sure. A lot of that depends on how deep folks are willing to dig and how much money they’re willin’ to spend to get it. It might take many years—maybe even centuries—to get all that gold, and by then, who knows? They might come up with new ways to find it, or maybe they won’t even bother no more.

So, is the gold gonna run out anytime soon? Nah, not in our lifetimes, probably. But it sure ain’t gonna be as easy to get as it was back in the day. The deep gold is gonna cost a pretty penny, and whether we’ll ever be able to reach it all is somethin’ only time will tell. So, folks, if you’re thinkin’ about hoardin’ gold, just remember: there’s still some out there, but it’s not all gonna come easy. Ain’t nothing in life that’s worth havin’ comes easy, ya know?

Tags：[gold, unmined gold, gold reserves, Earth, Australia gold, Russia gold, South Africa gold, U.S. Geological Survey, gold mining, how much gold is left, future gold supply]