How Much of the Worlds Gold Has Been Mined? Key Facts You Need to Know

Oh, so you wanna know how much gold’s been dug up from the earth all these years, huh? Well, let me tell ya, it’s a fair bit, but not as much as you might think. Gold’s been mined for thousands of years, but it ain’t like we got all the gold out there. Folks been pulling it from the ground and rivers, melting it down, and making shiny things out of it, but there’s still a whole lot more hidden under the ground.

Now, according to what they say, experts reckon that somewhere around 212,582 tonnes of gold’s been pulled from the earth up till now. And you know what? About two-thirds of that gold’s been dug up since 1950! That’s not long ago, huh? Seems like they started working real hard on it after the 20th century kicked off. They probably got fancier tools or something, I don’t know, but it sure added up.

So, what’s that mean for the future? Well, they say we might run out of easily reachable gold by the year 2050! That’s not too far away, is it? People think that by then, we’ll have dug up all the easy-to-find gold, and what’s left is gonna be much harder to get to. Right now, they say there’s still around 50,000 tonnes of gold sitting under the ground waiting to be found, but that’s all a guess, you know? No one really knows for sure until they start digging more.

But here’s the thing: gold’s kinda special. It don’t go bad, it don’t rust or decay like other stuff. So, almost all the gold ever dug up is still around, just changed into different forms. Folks make jewelry, coins, and all sorts of fancy things with it, but it all keeps getting passed around. Some of it’s buried in the earth in old mines, some of it’s sitting in people’s bank vaults, and some of it’s hanging on necks or in pockets. Ain’t like it disappears, you see?

How much gold is there in the world right now? Well, the last figures I heard from the World Gold Council say that, as of the end of 2023, we got about 212,000 tonnes of gold that’s been mined in total. That’s the number folks are working with. But, mind ya, it’s all scattered around, and there’s still some hidden deep down where no one’s gone yet.

Now, when you think about how much gold we still gotta mine, it don’t sound like much. But it’s worth noting that gold ain’t exactly easy to find. It’s buried deep down in the earth, sometimes far below the surface, and only the big companies with the fancy machines can get to it. And even when they find it, it’s not like they can just scoop it up and make a nice little pile. They gotta go through all sorts of work just to get a little bit of it. Makes you wonder how much gold’s just sitting there, waiting for someone to come along and dig it up, don’t it?

What about the future? Will we keep finding gold? Well, some folks think we might still have a little luck left. They reckon that with all the new technology, they might be able to get at gold that’s been too hard to reach before. But, like I said, there’s a lot of guessing in all this. Maybe we’ll find more, maybe we won’t. But if we do, it might be harder to get, and it sure won’t be as much as we’ve dug up already. So, don’t go expecting a big pile of gold to suddenly show up on the streets anytime soon.

One thing’s for sure though: people ain’t gonna stop digging. Gold’s been prized for centuries, and there’s still plenty of folks out there that think it’s worth the trouble. Whether we run out by 2050 or not, one thing’s for sure—gold ain’t going anywhere. And as long as there’s some to find, folks will be out there trying to get their hands on it.

• About 212,000 tonnes of gold mined till now.
• Two-thirds of that since 1950.
• 50,000 tonnes of gold still in the ground.
• Gold’s indestructible, so it’s still around in one form or another.
• We might run out of easy-to-find gold by 2050.

To wrap it up, gold’s a rare and precious thing, but we ain’t gonna run out of it anytime soon, not if people keep digging. Just remember, it’s not just about how much’s been mined; it’s about how much is still out there, waiting to be found. And with all the fancy equipment they got these days, who knows? Maybe we’ll keep pulling it out of the earth for a good while yet.

Tags：[gold mining, how much gold is in the world, gold reserves, world gold council, future of gold mining, gold production]