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How Much Gold Has Been Mined


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3 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

  Trivia question:  which state has produced the most?  (It's not close, and it's not the obvious answer.)

For me personally, NV has proved me the most tonnage., 2nd would be Oregon, 3rd is Idaho, 4th is Alaska, 5th is MT, 6th is Arizona.  That lead I've helped recover from mother earth eventually will be worth something some day.

Now if you asked me about gold?  I'd probably have to say the same order.

Me taking a guess without asking internet, I would imagine NV or AK.

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23 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

Trivia question:  which state has produced the most gold?  (It's not close, and it's not the obvious answer.)

 

21 hours ago, mn90403 said:

Without looking at the article ... Nevada I would say.

 

19 hours ago, Gerry in Idaho said:

Me taking a guess without asking internet, I would imagine NV or AK.

Yep, you are both right although Gerry only gets half credit for hedging with a second choice.  😁

In Chris's ICMJ article I linked previously in this thread he points out that of the 250 million troy ounces recovered in Nevada so far, 220 million of those have occurred since 1980 when the Carlin deposits (microscopic gold requiring leaching, etc. methods) started being exploited via strip/surface mining.  So prior to that what I call the 'obvious answer' -- California -- was in first place.  (I don't know what year Nevada overtook California but it's way ahead now, by severals 10's of millions of ozt.)

Now for placer gold there's no competition.  California has produced more placer gold than the other 12 Western states (Alaska included in those 12) put together.  AK is a distant second.  Another surprise to me was how little placer gold has been recovered in Arizona given that from a metal detectorist's standpoint that may be the best producer these days.

The article is very interesting as he goes over each state's major mining districts and includes some commentary on the different methods of recovery that have been used in those prime locations.

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Top 10 States and gold production.  Who would have realized Utah and South Dakota?

Heck, I only have a few customers who have found nuggets in either of those states.  I think I actually have more customers that have found nuggets in North Carolina than UT and SD...

We need to start hearing stories from those folks in such hidden quiet places...  Or maybe they prefer it that way?

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South Dakota was the first place I found a piece of gold big enough I could grab with my fingers. There used to be to a skatepark there right in Deadwood, and Whitewood Creek flows behind it with a little concrete path next to it. I used a rock hammer, prybars, and chisels to bust up the shale bedrock and panned out a good bit of gold and mercury. A guy I met there had quite a few pickers and nuggets from right in town. Not sure if the city allows that still or not, but they used to and there was an officer there who'd walk by and was always curious what I found.

I'm sure there are good places to detect in the Black Hills. I kept running into private land and claims everywhere I really wanted to go so I didn't spend much time there. Also ran into a place that felt a little too Deliverance-y for my comfort. The guy I prospected with occasionally up there had a 1 ton boulder fall on his leg and trap him for 2 days on the GPAA claim outside Deadwood and neither of us ever really went back after that.

I've found some so so flour gold on the Dolores River in UT by the Colorado border, but no nuggets. There are pickers on Wilson Mesa in the La Sals, gold was better staying in Colorado though so I didn't spend much time there. Most the Utah gold production comes as a byproduct of copper mining I believe. 

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3 hours ago, Gerry in Idaho said:

I think I actually have more customers that have found nuggets in North Carolina than UT and SD...

@afreakofnature (Brian, one of your students) lives in SD and has found gold there.  If it weren't for the Homestake Mine I don't think SD would even be on the map.  (It's not even technically a Western State AFAIC.) 

It's really more about placer gold for most of us.  I mean this big conglomerates that mine for copper and gold with trucks the size of houses and processing facilities the size of WalMarts -- hardly relates to what we do.   Here from Chris's report is placer recovery (in millions of troy ounces):

CA 68.4

AK 22.0

MT 9.0

ID 5.7

OR 3.5

NV 1.9

CO 1.8

AZ 0.5

NM 0.5

SD 0.4

WA 0.3

UT 0.1

WY 0.05

 

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Nothing beats California in placer gold recovery, that is long known. But Arizona being so far behind is a surprise. That being said, Arizona lacks water for the most part, so the recovery won't be that easy compared to the big Sierra Nevada rivers. But the unique gold vein deposits of the Motherlode are also pretty much unmatched anywhere else.

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Much of the value of "white metal" bullion comes from its industrial uses. For example, silver sees widespread use in electronics manufacturing. Platinum and palladium play major roles in catalytic converters for internal combustion engines.

While all three of these metals also see investment demand, it isn't the main source of their value. Gold bullion, in contrast, sees nearly all its value derive from investment demand.

 

https://www.gainesvillecoins.com/blog/what-is-bullion

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  • 3 months later...

Here is a lot of trivia for you but it does give an indication of how much gold is really out there:

The Ultimate List Of Gold Facts (gainesvillecoins.com)

 

#51. German households own 9,100 metric tons of gold, mostly in bars and coins. This is greater than the gold reserves of the United States.

#52. Indian households are estimated to hold more than 25,000 metric tons of gold (mostly in jewelry.) This is more than the gold reserves of the top 10 nations put together.

#53. Switzerland has the highest per capita gold reserves in the world, at 120 grams per person.

#54. The top five nations with the highest government gold reserves are:

  • US (8,133 t)
  • Germany (3,361 t)
  • Italy (2,452 t)
  • France (2,436 t), and
  • Russia (2,922 t).
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2 hours ago, mn90403 said:

#53. Switzerland has the highest per capita gold reserves in the world, at 120 grams per person.

That has made my day. I and the wife am better of than the average Swiss person with a nugget each that exceeds the 4 ounce laying around out of site.🤑 

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