How much gold is there left to mine in the world?

- News - August 19, 2021
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In August 2020, the price of gold hit a record high, pushing above $2,000 (£1,575) an ounce.

While this price rise was driven by gold traders, it begs the question about the supply of the precious metal, and when it will eventually run out.

Gold is in hot demand as an investment, a status symbol, and a key component in many electronic products.

But it’s also a finite resource, and there will eventually come a stage when there is none left to be mined.

Peak gold

Experts talk about the concept of peak gold – when we have mined the most we ever can in any one year. Some believe we may have already reached that point.

Gold mine production totalled 3,531 tonnes in 2019, 1% lower than in 2018, according to the World Gold Council. This is the first annual decline in production since 2008.

“While the growth in mine supply may slow or decline slightly in the coming years, as existing reserves are exhausted, and new major discoveries become increasingly rare, suggesting that production has peaked may still be a little premature,” says Hannah Brandstaetter, a spokesman for the World Gold Council.

Even when peak gold happens, experts say the years immediately after it are not likely to see a dramatic decrease in production. Instead, we could see a gradual depletion of output over a few decades.

“Mine production has flat-lined, and is likely on a downward trajectory, but not dramatically so,” adds Ross Norman of MetalsDaily.com.

Gold mining production has “flat-lined”

So how much is left?

Mining companies estimate the volume of gold that remains in the ground in two ways:

Reserves – gold that is economic to mine at the current gold price

Resources – gold that will potentially become economic to mine after further investigation, or at a higher price level

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The volume of gold reserves can be calculated more accurately than resources, although this is still not an easy task.

The below-ground stock of gold reserves is currently estimated to be around 50,000 tonnes, according to the US Geological Survey.

To put that in perspective, around 190,000 tonnes of gold has been mined in total, although estimates do vary.

Based on these rough figures, there is about 20% still to be mined. But this is a moving target.

New technologies may make it possible to extract some known reserves that aren’t currently economical to access.

The most recent innovations include big data, AI, and smart data mining, which can potentially optimise processes and bring down costs.

Robotics are already being used at some sites, and are expected to increasingly become standard technologies in mine exploration.

It is getting harder and more expensive to mine gold.

Biggest sources

The largest single source of gold in history has been the Witwatersrand Basin of South Africa. Witwatersrand accounts for roughly 30% of all the gold ever mined.

Other major sources of gold include the extremely deep Mponeng mine in South Africa, the Super Pit and Newmont Boddington mines in Australia, Indonesia’s Grasberg Mine, and mines in Nevada, US.

China is currently the world’s biggest miner of gold, while Canada, Russia, and Peru are also major producers.

In terms of companies, Barrick Gold’s majority-owned Nevada Gold Mines is the single largest gold-mining complex in the world, producing about 3.5 million ounces a year.

Though new gold mines are still being found, discoveries of large deposits are becoming increasingly rare, experts say.

As a result, most gold production currently comes from older mines that have been in use for decades. BBC

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