# Is this true?



## skyline27 (Feb 28, 2008)

"if all the gold ever mined were brought together in one place and formed into one solid cube, it would fit on board a single oil tanker"

I found this in an article on Frontline. Is that really it?

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/peru404/history.html


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## Froggy (Feb 28, 2008)

Hmm, I bet it would fit but, it would be at the bottom of the ocean... :lol:


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## Harold_V (Feb 28, 2008)

From what I've heard, it's true. There was a point in time when they suggested that the cube would be a scarce 60' per side. Later it became 100'. I don't know that it's deadly accurate, but one thing is for sure. Gold is scarce, although very wide-spread. Almost anything that is assayed shows miniscule traces. 

Platinum is known to exist (on Earth) at only 1/10th the amount of gold. That should tell all of us something about the relative value of platinum, which is used extensively in ways we may not understand. 

We humans are pretty good about keeping these high value metals in the pipeline. Think of all the work each of you go to to recover bits of gold! Historically, gold has always been valued. The ancient Egyptians were fantastic goldsmiths.

Harold


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## zauggart (Feb 28, 2008)

well if thats the case im glad i have a small slice of the pie! 
ian


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## skyline27 (Feb 28, 2008)

Yeah me too. A small slice. Like actually just a few crumbs of crust!


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## mwren (Feb 28, 2008)

No it is not accurate, unless that tanker is 100 miles long 50 miles wide and 20 miles high.

Think about it, every store that sells gold jewelry. it is not possible.

It sounds like the claims that De Beer's makes about how rare diamonds are, which is also a load of horsesh#t.


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## Anonymous (Feb 29, 2008)

The cube you discribe would be over 14744 billion tons of gold. 
We do not have that much, it would be more available than iron and would be almost 2 billion tons per person on earth.

based one my memmory of 1 cu ft of gold being equal to 1 ton


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## mwren (Feb 29, 2008)

I was trying to make the statement that there is more than enough gold in stores today to fill several oil tankers.


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## jimdoc (Feb 29, 2008)

Most gold in stores is 10K or 14K so that would 
throw off the figures.


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## calgoldrecyclers (Feb 29, 2008)

also, most gold you see in the stores has been recycled.
gold is recycled over and over and over again. i surmise you could easily fit all the worlds found gold into the space of an oil tanker. after all, they were speaking of a liquid tanker over 550 feet long, 50 plus feet wide and 36 plus feet deep.( the hold, not the actual length of ship) the question is, how much of the worlds gold is actually held in population, and how much is held in paper?(stocks,bonds,futures)


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## mwren (Feb 29, 2008)

My math may be a little off but if I remember correctly to calculate the weight of an element in one cubic foot the formula is:
Weight of water per volume X Specific gravity X volume of element.

So if we know that 1 cubic foot of water weighs 62.2lbs and the speific gravity of gold is 19.3 then 62.2lbsX19.3sgX1cf=1200.46Lbs

so 1 cubic foot of gold is 1200lbs not 2000lbs.


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## Lou (Feb 29, 2008)

Better check your math.


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## NuggetHuntingFool (Feb 29, 2008)

I agree with the above. I've heard that the cube of all of the recovered pure gold on the planet would be a cube of 60' on all sides.

I've read that only 5% of the gold on earth has actually been recovered.

That's not much if you think about. However, it makes me happy because 95% of it is still out there for me to find! :lol: 


Regards


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## lazersteve (Feb 29, 2008)

One cubic foot = 28316.8466 cc

So a cubic foot of gold =

28316.8466 cc x 19.3g/cc = 546515.10078 grams or 

1204.85955 pounds

Steve


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## Anonymous (Feb 29, 2008)

You are correct my memmory was wrong on the weight of 1 cu ft of gold but so was my result of 2 billion tons per peson on earth the gold in that cube would be about 7000 billion tonnes or 1000 tons per person.
Sorry about that was working off of my old school days 35 years ago and the memmory is not always infalable but is for the most part pretty close.


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## Anonymous (Feb 29, 2008)

a 50 ft cube would be 150,000,000 lbs that is quite enough for a good amount of rings.


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## Harold_V (Mar 1, 2008)

NuggetHuntingFool said:


> I've read that only 5% of the gold on earth has actually been recovered.
> 
> That's not much if you think about. However, it makes me happy because 95% of it is still out there for me to find! :lol:
> 
> Regards



Sadly, it's the easy 5% that has been found. The rest is sure to be taxing, and possibly beyond the ability of the common man to extract. 

Then there's the old guy in Australia, maybe 15 years ago, that bought a metal detector and found a huge nugget the first day out. When I say huge, I recall it was something like 200 ounces. Maybe I'm wrong! :wink: 

Harold


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## Harold_V (Mar 1, 2008)

mwren said:


> No it is not accurate, unless that tanker is 100 miles long 50 miles wide and 20 miles high.


Utter nonsense. 

The amount of gold on earth is fairly well documented. Scientists have predicted the ratio compared to other elements. The number is miniscule, with platinum even rarer by a factor of ten. 

Even alloyed, assuming one ship could carry the weight, one oil tanker would carry everything, with plenty of room left over for oil, although I'm not sure you'd have enough money to buy any at today's prices. :wink: 

If you think gold is plentiful, grab your assay bags, pick and shovel, and set out to find some. It won't take you long to come to terms with the reason it's valued so highly. It is wide-spread in minute quantities (less than commercially viable), but rarely found in quantity, very unlike many of the other elements. It may be safe to say that more gold is recovered as a by-product than is produced directly as a major product. Kennecott Copper, in Utah, is a well known producer of gold, but it is nothing more than one of many byproducts, all of which make the overall operation profitable. It's entirely likely that it would not function were it to rely on one product alone. 



> Think about it, every store that sells gold jewelry. it is not possible.



I did think about it, and I reject your notion. It makes no sense. 



> It sounds like the claims that De Beer's makes about how rare diamonds are, which is also a load of horsesh#t.


Not the same thing, nor is anyone making gold these days, unlike diamonds. Good natural diamonds are still in demand, and likely always will be, just as gold will. Industrial diamonds are now far cheaper, especially when you consider the value (or lack thereof) of the dollar. A diamond wheel that had a retail price of $600 in the late 50's is now readily available for something under $200. That's a huge decrease in cost, unlike gold, which has gone from $35/ounce to nearly $1,000. Speaks a great deal about the shrinking dollar, eh?

Harold


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## mwren (Mar 3, 2008)

I see the point that you are making Harold; I severely exaggerated the size of the ship. I still disagree with the statement that all of the gold that has ever been mined would fit into the holds of one supertanker. To make such a statement is ludicrous, how do we know what Ug & Oog found or dug out of the ground. (Ug & Oog would be cavemen) However if someone said that all the worlds gold mined since 1850 would fit into the holds of one supertanker I would find that a more believable statement.


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## skyline27 (Mar 3, 2008)

I tried to calculate the dollar value of the 60 foot cubed button of gold and my calculator exploded!


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## Harold_V (Mar 3, 2008)

mwren said:


> I see the point that you are making Harold; I severely exaggerated the size of the ship. I still disagree with the statement that all of the gold that has ever been mined would fit into the holds of one supertanker. To make such a statement is ludicrous, how do we know what Ug & Oog found or dug out of the ground. (Ug & Oog would be cavemen) However if someone said that all the worlds gold mined since 1850 would fit into the holds of one supertanker I would find that a more believable statement.



You can't have it both ways, and I'm afraid you are very poorly informed. 

75% if the gold known to exist has been produced in the past 100 years. In real terms, there isn't a lot of gold known. It's a very rare element in the scheme of things. 

Here's a link that might shed some light on the subject---

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/jan/20/2

Harold


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## catfish (Mar 3, 2008)

Heres another web site you may want to review on the economics of gold and the "supply and demand". (101 Micro-economics) Very interesting.

http://www.pensions.gold.org/uk/supply_demand/

Catfish


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## markqf1 (Mar 3, 2008)

If you've ever searched the mountains for the 95% of it that is reportedly still there, like I have, you come to realize that all of the easy to get stuff (placer)was gotten pretty quickly. 

I have read that all of the gold ever mined would amount to a 60 ft. cb.
This may be true for all of the mined gold that has been recorded but, alot of it has not been recorded and is buried in various tombs, never to be recycled. The native americans here in Ga.(mainly Cherokee) did not value it very much or use it ornamentally , nor did they actively mine it , until they figured out what the white man was willing to give for it.

Talk about 60 ft. cubes,... Anybody have a guess as to what a 1"x 1" cube weighs?
I'll give you a hint.... it's a helluva lot of money right now.

The 95% of the earths gold that is supposedly still there will cost money to recover. I do believe however, that using modern technology and processes unknown to early prospectors, a large amount(relatively speaking) can be recovered by the prudent and dilligent efforts of 21st century prospectors. Metal detectors, chemicals , and technology gives us a little edge over the 29ers. Old dredge tailings are a great place to employ these methods.

I wouldn't be looking at how big of a ship, but rather, how much weight it could carry.

Mark


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## calgoldrecyclers (Mar 5, 2008)

Mark is right on the money. all of the easy gold has been found. after all, it was washing down out of the mountains for 5000 plus years before anyone paid much attention to it. which is why fellers were picking it straight out of the "cricks" and streams. they had no competition. i wonder how many raccoon dens have gold mines? (raccoons being attracted to shiny objects) the best bet for the modern day prospector, is going after what the old timeys hadnt "noticed". technology is a thousand time better now, than it was 160 years ago. run that there detector o'er a tailings dump and see what ya git. wasnt there a feller that found an 86 ounce nugget out in stanton arizona about three years back, using a mine lab detector? i cant wait for the snow to melt!


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