How Much Gold Is There?

How much gold is there in the world? Short answer: not much. That’s good news because gold’s value lies in its scarcity. After all, nobody picks up gravel off the ground and stores it in a safe. But if you find a gold nugget, you can take that to the bank – quite literally. Most people are vaguely aware that gold is scarce. But just how little there actually is might surprise you.
According to the World Gold Council, the best estimates suggest miners have pulled about 183,600 tons of gold out of the ground throughout history. That sounds like a lot. But if all of the gold ever mined was melted down into a giant cube, it would measure just 21.3 meters on each side, which translates to just under 70 feet. To put that into perspective, that’s about as tall as a seven-story building.
To look at it another way, if you formed all of the gold ever mined into 400-ounce bars and stacked them on top of one another, the stack wouldn’t even reach to the of the Statue of Liberty’s waist.

This post was published at Schiffgold on APRIL 27, 2017.