Gold deposits are found all over the world. On average, the amount of the precious metal in the earth's crust is 0.005 ppm, which corresponds to approximately 5g in a rock mass of 1,000 tons. However, gold deposits are not evenly distributed; the concentration is significantly higher in some areas than in others.
Mining gold deposits is only profitable if the gold content is at least 1g per tonne. Around 20,000 gold deposits have been discovered worldwide so far and their development is lucrative.
The largest deposits are in South Africa, New Guinea, Mexico, Russia, the USA and Australia. Around 2,600 tons of gold are mined worldwide every year.
deposits of gold deposits
Gold deposits are divided into primary and secondary deposits. The primary deposits – also known as mountain gold – are so-called gold ores, i.e. gold-bearing rocks that often occur in quartz veins underground.
Secondary gold deposits are formed as a weathering product of primary gold . This is native gold that often accumulates on the bottom of rivers and can be recovered by gold panning.
Gold deposits in numbers
In total, an estimated 155,000 tons of gold have been mined so far, of which about 153,000 tons are still in circulation.
18% of these gold deposits now belong to banks, while a full 51% is made into jewelry. 12% of the gold is contained in works of art and the remaining 16% is in the form of coins or bars .
Gold in the Lexicon
Jewelry in the Lexicon
