The US Geological Survey released data on the gold market for 2019. It provides data on the mining of yellow precious metals by the largest gold-mining countries. The report also provides an estimate of how much gold is left for mining in the bowels of the earth for each country. Thus, it is possible to understand what potential the state retained in the extraction of precious metals.
As in previous years, China remains the main gold miner in the world with a volume of 420 tons, which is -19 tons less compared to 2018. Then come Australia, Russia, the United States and Canada (in descending order). The positions of these countries over the past year have not changed. According to USGS, Indonesia became the main discovery of the past year, which was able to rise in the ranking of countries, having mined 160 tons last year, which is +25 tons more than in 2018. The largest gold mine in the world, Grasberg, is located in this Asian country. (Grasberg). He is also considered the highest career in the world.
The outsider of the past 2019 was South Africa. Once this country was the world leader in gold mining, but now it was able to produce only 90 tons, which is -27 tons less than in 2018. Now South Africa is in 12th place in the rating of countries mining yellow precious metals. Moreover, experts lowered the forecast for available gold reserves in this country. If earlier the USGS forecasted 6,000 tons of gold in the bowels, now experts come from 3,200 tons.
According to the USGS, an estimated 50,000 tons of gold are found in the bowels of the earth that can be mined at the current level of technology. This figure has been reduced by 4,000 tons compared to the previous review. If global gold production remains at the level of 3.300 tons per year, as it was in 2018 and 2019, then the reserves of yellow precious metals in the world may be depleted in 15 years. This is called the geological horizon.
This, of course, is all theoretical calculations. The geological horizon is revised from time to time. Of course, in recent years, no large gold deposits have been discovered in the world. Despite this fact, precious metals will be mined for many more decades. The fact is that with the increase in the world price of gold, mining companies will be interested in investing in hard-to-reach deposits, which means the geological horizon will be expanded. According to the World Gold Council (WGC), over the entire modern history of mankind, 190.040 tons of yellow precious metals have been mined in the world (data for 2017). This volume can be represented as a cube with a diagonal of 21.4 m.