soulsurfer3 t1_j3048an wrote
“mined” is the key term here. there’s been tons of river gold and in areas like australia when they were first colonized, there were nuggets in some areas just laying on the ground.
cybermage t1_j30ih3g wrote
I was thinking that too. Lots of river gold indeed.
soulsurfer3 t1_j30k3y8 wrote
That was the entire california and alaska gold rushes
Nyghtshayde t1_j31brtt wrote
Well in Victoria, which was the centre of the gold rush, there's still at much gold in the ground as was removed over the past 130 years.
Cetun t1_j33kbst wrote
The amount in our crust is actually relatively small amount, even if you were to mine at all. It's estimated that the amount we can reasonably extract from the crust would amount to a solid cube 100m by 100m thick. Contrast that with how much gold is currently in the Earth's core, since heavier elements sink. If you were to take all the gold in the Earth's core and spread it evenly across the surface of the earth it would cover the entire surface of earth in a sold 1m of gold.
soulsurfer3 t1_j33lasc wrote
Damn. That’s crazy. I know that it’s comes up through magma and volcanic activity. But had no idea how much was in the core. And also how much that is i. the crust that will never be mined. Makes you think that the future for mining rare elements may really be in asteroids.
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