Why Is Fiat Money Valuable? In contrast to commodity-based money like gold coins or paper bills redeemable for precious metals, fiat money is backed entirely by the full faith and trust in the government that issued it. One reason this has merit is that governments demand that you pay taxes […]
Digging a little deeper than the Moon’s crust, scientists have discovered that the Moon does indeed have a number of precious metals such as gold and silver. Is their gold on Mars? In addition, lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc, niobium, molybdenum, lanthanum, europium, tungsten, and gold have been found in […]
Wood has calculated that 1.6 quadrillion tons of gold must lie in Earth’s core. This may sound like a lot, but it is really only a tiny percentage of the core’s overall mass—about one part per million. The core holds six times as much platinum, Wood notes, “but people get […]
the Welcome Stranger. Considered by most authorities to be the biggest gold nugget ever found, the Welcome Stranger was found at Moliagul, Victoria, Australia in 1869 by John Deason and Richard Oates. It weighed gross, over 2,520 troy ounces (78 kg; 173 lb) and returned over 2,284 troy ounces (71.0 […]
Soils Associated with Gold Deposits. By far, the best-known type of soil which may indicate the presence of gold is known as “black sand.” Black sands are certainly not proof of the existence of nearby gold, only that the soil has a lot of minerals and heavy metals, one of […]
The 100oz Club comes up with a very similar number. It shows that there is only enough gold in the world for each adult in the world to hold 1oz of gold on average. How much gold do American citizens own? The U.S. reports the largest reserves of gold of […]
Indian households. Indian households have the largest private gold holdings in the world, standing at an estimated 24,000 metric tons. That figure surpasses the combined official gold reserves of the United States, Germany, Italy, France, China and Russia. How much gold is privately owned? Where is All the Gold? Category […]
One study found there is only about one gram of gold for every 100 million metric tons of ocean water in the Atlantic and north Pacific. There is also (undissolved) gold in/on the seafloor. The ocean, however, is deep, meaning that gold deposits are a mile or two underwater. Does […]
It was much more common for people to become wealthy by providing the miners with over-priced food, supplies and services. Sam Brannan was the great beneficiary of this new found wealth. Prices increased rapidly and during this period his store had a turnover of $150,000 a month (almost $4 million […]
California Gold Rush. California Gold Rush, rapid influx of fortune seekers in California that began after gold was found at Sutter’s Mill in early 1848 and reached its peak in 1852. According to estimates, more than 300,000 people came to the territory during the Gold Rush. What was the Gold […]
White Men’s Gold As for California’s native people, one hundred and twenty thousand Native Americans died of disease, starvation and homicide during the gold rush. What disease killed people in the Gold Rush? In the early years of the California gold rush, cholera struck each spring at the thronging jumping-off […]
All of the gold found on Earth came from the debris of dead stars. As the Earth formed, heavy elements such as iron and gold sank toward the planet’s core. If no other event had occurred, there would be no gold in the Earth’s crust. But, around 4 billion years […]
Did you know that gold is extraterrestrial? Instead of arising from our planet’s rocky crust, it was actually cooked up in space and is present on Earth because of cataclysmic stellar explosions called supernovae. CERN Scientist David Lunney outlines the incredible journey of gold from space to Earth. Where did […]
Gold became highly concentrated in California, United States as the result of global forces operating over hundreds of millions of years. Volcanoes, tectonic plates and erosion all combined to concentrate billions of dollars’ worth of gold in the mountains of California. Is there still a lot of gold in California? […]
If you discover gold or other minerals or gemstones on land not covered by a mining tenement, and the ground is Crown land (under the Mining Act 1978), then you are free to keep what you have found (as long as you hold a Miner’s Right). What to do with […]