That would be a cube roughly 25 metres on each side. Experts estimate that some 10 billion troy ounces of gold have been produced in the history of humanity, or just over 311 million kg. Of course, gold has been mined for thousands of years, and records were not always kept so precisely as they are now. The entire world production of gold is roughly 1.5 million kg per year, which would form a cube around 4.3 metres on each side. Gold is commonly measured in troy ounces, so it is worth noting that 32.15 ounces equals one kg. How Much Gold has Been Mined so far, in Total? Much of it will never really be accessible, of course, but there really is quite a bit out there. Other Platinum group metals – 1 part per billion or lessĪs the earth’s crust is estimated to mass around 2.6 * 1022 kg, it means that there is around 400 billion kg of gold throughout the entire crust. Of course, they are not evenly distributed or mining would be impossible, but the number is still useful. The rarity of a metal is best expressed as its ‘mass fraction’, or how many kg can be expected to be found per billion kg of crust material. We are unlikely to gather industrially or commercially useful amounts of material from the Earth’s much deeper mantle anytime soon, let alone from the molten core itself, so the huge volumes of these metals in those regions can be ignored. Here, we are only looking at the amount of these metals in the earth’s crust. How Much Gold, Silver and Platinum Exists on Earth? However, the sale price of rhodium is typically a bit less than that of platinum, and the rest are even less expensive because they are simply less useful. Rhodium, iridium and ruthenium are perhaps the rarest, roughly 1/5 as common as platinum. Silver may be more useful industrially, but it is somewhat less rare, so less precious. Gold and platinum definitely count as contenders for the number one spot. The most expensive are at once very rare and very useful. You can get a good sense for how precious a metal is by comparing it to others on international markets. Whilst some is used in jewellery, the majority of the palladium and platinum produced today is snapped up by automobile manufacturers, to produce catalytic converters.Ī metal must have all three aspects to be precious, and even then some are more precious than others. Gold and silver are highly sought after both as currency, bullion and for making art, but are also vital to the electronics industry. However, modern production techniques relegated it to the status of a common metal.Ī metal might pass both of the other tests, but if it isn’t desired by people, it does not count. Aluminium was once considered a precious metal because it was nearly impossible to refine. Copper, while traditionally used in coinage and jewellery, is far too common to count it as ‘precious’. The amounts of the metal found in the earth’s crust must be quite small. Unstable elements that must be created in a lab (typically by fusing or irradiating other elements) can never count as precious metals. Gold, silver, platinum and even the unusual precious metals like osmium are all metals (in a chemical sense) and naturally occurring. It must be a naturally occurring metallic element There are three areas which are often referenced when discussing precious metals:ġ. Platinum and palladium have international currency codes assigned by ISO, just like gold and silver.īut what makes these metals special? Is it simply their rarity, beauty and utility? What Makes a Metal Precious? However, the platinum group of elements (platinum itself, palladium, iridium, osmium, rhodium and ruthenium) are also important precious metals. The best known precious metals are of course gold and silver, which have both been made into currency and objects of art since before recorded history began.
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