In times past gold diggers craved the elusive discovery of gold nuggets. Today, just about everyone wears it and its a wise stock for any investor seeking to preserve purchasing power.
But have you ever thought about which countries have the biggest gold reserves and which countries are producing the gold? Jump to the infographic below and scroll on down to get to some interesting facts and factoids about the glistening substance.
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Some Insights into the data on our infographic:
All Gold Ever Mined – The total amount of gold ever mined is estimated to be worth around US$5 trillion.
How Gold is Used – You might have though (like me) that most of the gold in the world stored in bank vaults and lock-boxes? Actually, 78 % of the worlds’ gold is made into jewelery. Other industries, mostly electronics, medical, and dental, require about 12%. The remaining 10% of the yearly gold supply is used in financial transactions.
Producers and Owners – The starkest contrast is South Africa: number 27 on the list of nations that own the most gold list despite producing the most gold in the world per year from its mines.
Gold production in the United States – The State of Nevada has the world’s lowest cost and most profitable gold mines. The mines average output is about 7 million ounces per year.
The Fed’s Vault – The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has the largest accumulation of monetary gold. The vault is 25 meters (80 feet) underground and holds $147 billion worth of gold bullion.
Current gold price trading on Wall Street:
If the value of gold on the New York stock market is anything to go by then you can see how much its been a safe haven for investors:
And now for some facts and factoids about gold:
Gold Discovery – The first discovery of gold in the USA was an 8 kg nugget of gold found by the son of a farmer. He and his father were using this stone as the support for a door until the local jeweller noticed it. And the owner sold this stone for $3.5. Finally the farmer understood this piece was very valuable and opened the first gold-mine in the country.
Largest Gold Nugget Ever Found – The largest gold nugget ever found was in Australia in 1869. It was named “Welcome Stranger,” It weighed 78 kilograms. After it was melted down 71 Kg of pure gold was left.
The US Gold Drain – When the American dollar was first pushed as the world de-facto currency it was backed by gold. One ounce of gold was worth $35. After 25 years of the American’s continual printing of money however, $35 was no longer worth an ounce of gold. In actual fact one ounce of gold was worth $105. As a result foreign countries, beginning with France in the late 1960’s, started to buy gold at $35 until the United States Government stopped selling its gold, thus removing gold backing from its dollar.
Private Gold Ownership Banned in the USA – Private ownership of gold was banned in the United States for 41 years. It lasted from 1933 to 1974.
Gold Refined and Rare – If all the gold that had been refined in the world was put into a cube, its sides would be roughly 20 metres long but would only weigh 1/10 of the Washington Monument.
Gold Nugget – Gold nuggets are actually quite rare. A gold nugget can sell for up to 4 times the worth of the amount of gold in it.
Gold Leaf – Gold leaf is commonly 0.18 microns (seven millionths of an inch) thick. It’s so thin that a stack of 7,055 sheets would be no thicker than a dime.
Largest Gold Nugget Still in Nugget Form – The ‘Hand of Faith’, is the largest gold nugget still in existence. It weighs 27 Kg (60 pounds) and is currently on display at the Golden Nugget hotel and casino in Las Vegas.
Gold and Medicine – Thousands of rheumatoid arthritis victims have chemically liquefied gold injected into their muscles. It is said that the treatment is successful in seven out of ten cases.
The Heaviness of Gold – Gold is so heavy that one cubic foot of it weighs half a ton.
The Malleability of Gold – A single ounce of gold can be drawn into a wire 60 miles long.
Gold in Water – The worlds’ largest stock pile of gold is actually in the oceans. For every cubic mile of sea water there is 25 tons of gold! That’s a total of about 10 billion tons of gold in the oceans; unfortunately, there’s no known way to recover it economically.
Artificial Creation of Gold – Gold can be transmitted from platinum by nuclear reaction. But, because of the rarity of platinum, it is far too costly.
Gold in Space – The visors of astronauts’ space helmets receive a coating of gold so thin (0.00005 millimeters, or 0.000002 inches) that it is partially transparent. The astronauts can see through it, but even this thin layer reduces glare and heat from sunlight.
Gold in the Bible – You may be interested to know that gold is mentioned 417 times in the Bible. And, the last book of the New Testament, the Book of Revelation states that in the New Heavens and New Earth the streets will made from pure gold!
David is a 20-something based in New South Wales, Australia and is co-founder of
What a great visualisation and some very insightful statistics. At the rate its being traded on the stocks, it’s no wonder there are “We-buy-your-gold” shops springing up all over the place….
Shocked to South Africa as the leading gold producer, I thought it would of been Australia.
Great post, I’ll be sure to share it with my readers.
Thanks Phill. The “We buy your gold” people unfortunately market themselves saying “Sell your gold then go buy more stuff” when really they should be saying “Sell your gold then go pay off your debts”! Don’t forget you can embed the infographic on your blog.
Hello David,
Enjoyed the factoids; have seen most, but never in one place; nicely done.
After 36 years as a student of the markets (18 as a registered rep, licensed in all areas of insurance, Real Estate agent), I’ve come to the conclusion that the entire market is rigged — and it all begins and ends with the FED and those who are a part of it.
In my humble opinion, there is only one place to be, and that is physical gold and silver (for reasons too many to get into here; however, over time, they will be detailed on my new blog which should be up by next week).
I owned GLD at one time, and have liquidated ALL my market holdings and put everything into tangible, physical gold and silver.
Why?
Like I said, the market is rigged. Additionally, I didn’t have title to my investments (the FED did through its Deposit Trust & Clearing Corporation’s subsidiary Cede & Co.). After seeing how “transparent” the handling of TARP and other corporate welfare has been, I decided the risks were to great to remain exposed to any possibility of my money being absconded with.
Here’s another reason:
GLD Managing Director Jason Toussaint Does Not Own ANY GLD Shares. . .BUT he owns physical gold and mining stocks.
Here’s a link to a very interesting article:
http://truthingold.blogspot.com/2010/08/gld-managing-director-jason-toussaint.html
Something for you to think about.
Joe
How about this—-Sell your stuff, and buy MORE GOLD? You betcha!!
cant wait to short gold when rates rise..
The U.S. has no gold left! Most of it was secretly sold by Rubin and Summers during the Clinton era (how else do you think they balanced the books so easily, just as Bk of England was doing it openly) and, if a few ounces remained, rest assured that Bush used it all up to pay for his Iraq and Afghanistan adventures.
You see, in today’s world you don’t really need to OWN gold, or silver or us treasuries for that matter: you only need to SAY and/or REPORT that you have IT.
According to this site : http://www.goldtraderasia.com/the-top-ten-largest-gold-reserves-in-bullion.htm
“If gold jewelry were taken into consideration and not just Bank Reserves, India would be the country with the most gold contained within it’s borders, estimated to be over 13,000 tonnes.”
What does the word ‘title’ really mean? It is more than just having legal right, which can easily be revoked by government, but means secure possession, and the means to protect this possession. Money in the bank is very weak possession, real estate is weak because your rights can be abrogated by government, large objects are not so good because they can be taken away from you, and this makes a bulky metal like silver too vulnerable. This leaves materials such as gold, platinum, rhodium, palladium, and precious stones. Gold is by far the best because it can be easily concealed and even hidden underground, is non-corrosible, and can be used in small quantities making it highly liquid so can be used as cash, with a value that is simple to calculate. As the crisis deepens over the years more and more people will realise these salient facts pushing the price of gold higher and higher.
“Shocked to South Africa as the leading gold producer, I thought it would of been Australia.”
Mmmmm… seriously?? BTW, it’s “would have”, not “would of”.
Unfortunately the USA gold reserves are too large to audit.
As a result, our gold has not been audited since 1958.
Interesting what you say about the Gold in the US.
Do you have any idea why Fort Knox refuses to be audited (or the Federal Reserve Bank for that matter).
There are some who says the Gold from Fort Knox has been stolen!
@Simeon – I’ve no idea what lays behind the doors of Fort Knox. Silence from governments only seems to breed speculation. Maybe if Ron Paul gets his way there will be a proper audit of The Fed and maybe the gold reserves too.