How much gold is there in the world? April 2nd, 2013

Imagine for a moment that you are a supervillain who has taken possession of all the gold in the world and decided to melt it into a huge cube. How big will it be?

Warren Buffett, one of the richest people on the planet, once calculated that the “cube” would not be that big. His sides will not exceed 20 meters - if we talk about gold mined throughout history.

Even with modern technology, gold is still very difficult to find. To date, according to some estimates, 160,000 tons of gold have been mined. It's actually less than you think. If all the mined gold is melted into a gold cube, it will easily fit into a tennis court, and will even be 2 meters shorter. And this is all the gold in the world!!!

About 2,600 tons of gold are mined per year, that is, an increase in production of 1.6% per year. Thus, newly mined gold increases the gold cube by 11 cm per year. Now such a hypothetical cube of all the gold in the world is equal to 20.2 meters diagonally. Such a cube of world gold will completely cover a tennis court when 205,000 tons of gold are mined in the world. This should happen in 2025. 205,000 tons is the sum of the current gold reserves (approximately 160,000 tons) plus the known but not yet mined reserves of gold mining companies (approximately 45,000 tons). This is all the world's gold today - already mined and still in the ground.

Thomson Reuters GFMS notifies investors about global gold reserves and updates this data annually. According to her latest calculations, it turns out that today we have 171,300 tons of this metal - just enough to fill a Buffett cube, even a little more. But not everyone agrees with the GFMS numbers. Estimates vary from 155,244 to 2.5 million tons. Why such a huge difference?

Historical shortage

The ancients knew a lot about yellow metal: the golden sarcophagus of Tutankhamun weighed 110 kg

This is partly due to the fact that gold has been mined for a very long time - more than 6 thousand years.

The first gold coins were minted around 550 BC. Lydian king Croesus in the territory of modern Turkey. They quickly became a universal means of payment for goods and services in the Mediterranean region.

By 1492, at the time of Columbus's sailing to the shores of America, 12,780 tons had been mined in the world, according to GFMS. However, the founder of the Gold Money company, James Turk, believes that this figure is greatly overestimated, since gold mining techniques were too primitive before the Middle Ages. From his point of view, at that time the mass of all gold mined was only 297 tons. Therefore, the final figure should be approximately 10% lower than the Thompson Reuters GFMS estimate, that is, 155,244 tons.

Let's go back in time. Now it is difficult to say when man first turned his attention to gold. In those distant times, he could not have thought about how to use this material. In Egypt, gold was called “nub”; it is believed that it was from this that the name of the country came - “Nubia”, in which the Egyptians mined gold. The gold they mined by the 7th century BC. equal to approximately three thousand tons.

It became the envy of the neighbors. And in 571 B.C. era was captured by the Assyrians. But just fifty years later, gold became part of Babylon. By this time, hundreds of tons of precious metal brought from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar had been collected in Babylon.

But Babylon also became an object of envy over time. At that time, almost two million people lived in it, the city was surrounded by triple impregnable walls, it would seem that nothing threatened it, but... The city was stormed and was taken by the troops of the Persian king Cyrus the Great. The next king (Darius) began minting gold coins from this gold - dariki (8.4 g). It is not difficult to guess that Persia also fell under the blows of Macedonia. All the gold and silver were loaded onto 5,000 camels and 10,000 carts! Alexander the Great concentrated more than 5,000 tons of gold from Macedonia alone. This is without counting gold from other countries in India and Central Asia!

Over time, all the wealth migrated to Rome. It was gold that contributed to the corruption of “the city of Rome and the world.” During these times, more gold was collected in Rome than had ever been in free circulation throughout the world.

History repeats itself... The richer we become, the greater the envy of our neighbors. This is how a person is by nature... One of the Vandal kings was able to take 600 tons of gold from Rome, which he destroyed in the 5th century. Not forgetting to rob all the Mediterranean countries along the way.

Historians cannot understand why the amount of gold in the world began to decrease after the fall of Constantinople in 1204. The next round of history takes place with the discovery of the New World. In the first years of discovery, 900 kg of gold were brought to Spain. And then, over the course of two hundred years, 2,600 tons of this metal were exported from the New World.

All these treasures that are listed here are not! Where are they? Not a single coin of Caesar, A. Macedonian or other equally significant kings has reached us. Only those insignificant amounts of gold that were stored in the tombs of the pyramids or were lost due to disasters have reached us. For example, Pompeii was destroyed by a volcanic eruption.
Someone will say - it was ground into powder and scattered throughout the world. But don't you think it's so simple? Everything here is much more complicated... Let's go down to earth and see what happened in the times closest to us.

Rich placers of gold nuggets were found in 1814 by Brusnitsky in the Urals. Then deposits were found in Transbaikalia (now Transbaikal Territory) in the Amur region, on the Lena. Over a hundred years, these deposits produced more than 3,000 tons of gold for Russia before 17.

By the beginning of the Second World War, the first crisis arose in the world; it did not affect only the United States. Since by this time the United States contained 21,800 tons of gold. The USSR at that time had a reserve of 2600 tons. Don't forget that after the war we had to pay off our debt to the United States in pure gold. It is not difficult to guess that all the gold in the world went to America. We paid off our debt, but England never returned to us the 440 tons of gold that it owed us under the Tsar.

Some investors are ready to believe in these calculations, but many analysts are hostile to Turk’s calculations, and one of them even noted in this regard that comparing Turk with GFMS is the same as seriously considering the Jedi religion on a par with Christianity.

However, there are those who are sure that both Turk and GFMS greatly underestimate the figures.

"Tutankhamun's gold sarcophagus alone weighed more than 100kg, and you can imagine how much gold there was in other tombs that were looted without leaving any records," says Jen Skoyles of investment firm The Real Asset Company.

While James Turk slightly tweaks the GFMS figures for gold mined after 1492, Skoyles points out that even today not all gold-mining countries are willing to share accurate data. And in some areas of the world, illegal mining is thriving without any official accounting.

Skoyles does not provide specific figures, but the independent Gold Standard Institute tried to do this for her.

His experts suggested that if we emptied all the safe deposit boxes and jewelry boxes, we would find at least two and a half million tons of gold.

So who is right in this debate?

Do we have enough gold?

The truth is hidden behind seven seals, because ultimately all calculations are based on assumptions that may be erroneous.

The only thing we can say with certainty is that in the near future we are not in danger of being left without gold. According to estimates by the US Geological Survey, the volume of gold in explored deposits alone is 52 thousand tons, but there are probably also unexplored ones.

However, there is also cause for concern. Until now, gold has not disappeared anywhere; some products were simply melted down into others.

"All the gold that was mined is still with us. If you are the lucky owner of a gold watch, then there is every chance that it was at least partly made from gold mined by the Romans," says James Turk.

However, today gold is increasingly used in the electronics industry, sometimes in such microscopic quantities that it is not economically feasible to extract it from end-of-life products.

And this, for the first time in history, leads to irreversible losses of the precious metal.

1/2, and in 2007 – only 11%. The number of people employed in this industry also decreased: from 715 thousand in 1975 to 350 thousand in the mid-1990s. (of which 55% were citizens of the country, and the rest were migrant workers from Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique) and up to 240 thousand in the late 1990s.

Rice. 153. Gold mining in South Africa 1980–2007

There are several reasons for this decline in gold production in South Africa.

Firstly, we need to talk about reduction of inventories gold - both quantitatively and especially qualitatively. In general, this is quite natural, considering that in more than 120 years since the beginning of the development of deposits, more than 50 thousand tons have already been mined here - more than in any other gold-bearing area in the world. And today, South Africa continues to occupy the unrivaled first place in gold reserves: the total reserves of its deposits are estimated at almost 40 thousand tons, and confirmed reserves at 22 thousand tons, which is 45% of world reserves. However, the depletion of the richest deposits is also having an increasingly noticeable effect.

In South Africa, where bedrock gold deposits significantly predominate over alluvial gold deposits, the average gold content in gold-bearing rocks has always been much higher than in most other countries. But in recent decades it has decreased significantly: from 12 g/t in the mid-1960s to 4.8 g/t in the late 1990s. This means that to produce one ounce of gold (31.1 g), 6,000 tons of gold-bearing rock must be mined, brought to the surface, and then ground to dust! But many mines also produce poorer ore.

Secondly, it affects deterioration of mining and geological conditions production First of all, this is expressed in an increase in its depth, the average of which here reaches a record level for the whole world. In the deepest mines in South Africa, gold is mined at depths of up to 3800–3900 m - this is also a world record! One can imagine what kind of ventilation system is necessary in order to make it possible for miners to work at such depths, where temperatures usually exceed 60 ° C, and even at very high pressure and humidity levels. As a result of an increase in the depth of mining and the deterioration of other conditions (combined with a decrease in gold content in ore), its cost, or the direct costs of extracting 1 g of gold, in South Africa now exceeds the world average.

Thirdly, recently South Africa has felt increasingly competition from other gold-mining countries, where gold production does not decrease, but increases. These are Australia (in 2007 it came out on top), China, Indonesia, Ghana, Peru, Chile. South Africa's competitors in the world market also remain the largest gold producers such as the USA, Canada, and Russia.

Finally, fourthly, one cannot ignore changes in market conditions on the world gold market. Back in the 1980s. There was a significant decline in prices for this metal. Then they more or less stabilized, but in 1997–1998. due to the financial crisis that gripped half the world, they fell again. Changes in market conditions in South Africa itself, associated primarily with the change of power in the country in 1994–1995, also had an impact.

As a result of all these changes, the share of the gold mining industry in South Africa's GDP decreased from 17% in 1980 to 4% in the late 1990s, and in employment of the economically active population - to 2.5%. But if we take into account not only the direct, but also the indirect impact of this industry on the country’s economy, it will turn out to be more significant. We must not forget that gold accounts for more than 1/2 of the value of mineral exports from South Africa.

Geography of the gold mining industry In this country, it mainly developed at the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th centuries. Since then, it has been concentrated in the area of ​​​​the Witwatersrand ridge (translated as “Ridge of White Waters”).

Gold was found in the Transvaal in the first half and mid-19th century, but both reserves and production were small. Witwatersrand gold was discovered in the 1870s. It turned out that it lies here in a layer of conglomerates protruding to the surface in the form of long, low ridges, which, due to their external resemblance to sea reefs, were also called reefs. Soon the Main Reef, stretching for 45 km, was discovered in the central part of the Witwatersrand, where gold reserves exceeded everything known in the world until then. The “gold rush” began, surpassing the Californian (1848–1849) and Australian (1851–1852) in scale. The search for gold brought tens of thousands of people to the Witwatersrand. At first, these were single gold miners developing surface deposits. But with the growth of deeper developments, large corporations began to emerge.

Rice. 153. Plan of Johannesburg (with surrounding areas)

Nowadays, this gold-bearing basin stretches in a relatively narrow arc through four (according to the new administrative division) provinces of the country. Several dozen gold mines operate here; some of them produce 20–30 tons, and the two largest – 60–80 tons of gold per year. They are located in several mining towns. But the main center of gold mining in the Witwatersrand has been Johannesburg for more than a hundred years. This town was founded south of Pretoria in 1886 and for a long time was a collection of isolated, rough mining towns. During the Anglo-Boer War 1899–1902. it was captured by the British and in 1910 (along with the entire Transvaal and Orange Free State) included in the British Dominion of South Africa. Now Johannesburg is the largest (along with Cape Town) city in the country and at the same time the administrative center of the province of Gauteng. But more importantly, it has long been transformed into the “economic capital” of South Africa, and primarily its financial capital. An urban agglomeration has developed around Johannesburg, the population of which is estimated by various sources at 3.5–5 million people.

The plan of Johannesburg is presented in Figure 154. It is easy to see that the railway running in the latitudinal direction divides the city into two parts. To the north of it are the Central Business District and the main residential areas; to the south are industrial buildings and numerous gold mines. Of course, the working conditions here today are not the same as they were at the end of the 19th century, when Kaffir workers were lowered down in wooden tubs and had to work almost in the dark. Nevertheless, they are still very heavy, especially at great depths. Under the apartheid regime, African workers, both local and recruited from neighboring countries, lived here in special settlements - locations. The largest of them is Soweto (short for South Western Townships). In the mid-1980s. Soweto's population was 1.8 million. Before the end of apartheid, it was one of the country's main centers of racial violence.

In connection with gold, one can say about uranium mining, because in South Africa they are closely interconnected.

In terms of the size of confirmed uranium reserves (150 thousand tons), South Africa ranks only sixth in the world (excluding Russia), far behind Australia, Kazakhstan and Canada and being approximately on a par with Brazil, Niger and Uzbekistan. Uranium mining and the production of uranium concentrates began here in 1952 and soon reached their maximum - 6000 tons per year. But then this level dropped to 3.5 thousand tons, and in the 1990s. - up to 1.5 thousand tons and in 2005 - up to 800 tons. Currently, South Africa ranks only 13th in the world in the production of uranium concentrates, far behind not only Canada and Australia, but also countries such as Niger , Namibia, USA, Russia, Uzbekistan.

A special feature of South Africa is the extremely low uranium content in the ore, ranging from 0.009 to 0.056%, and on average 0.017%, which is several times less than in other countries. This is explained by the fact that uranium in this country is obtained from the sludge of processing plants as a by-product during the processing of gold ores. This by-product extraction of uranium makes many old gold mines profitable.

South Africa has become famous throughout the world for no less than its gold mining. diamond mining. The entire history of this country is also virtually connected with the discovery and development of diamonds. And the diamond mining industry also had an impact on the formation of the geographical pattern of its economy.

After the British occupation of the Cape Colony at the beginning of the 19th century. in the 1830s The famous “Great Trek” began - the resettlement of Dutch colonists (Boers) to the north, which led to the creation of two republics - the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. The main goal of the Boer trek was the development of new pastures, which served as the basis of their economy and well-being. But soon colonization led to the discovery of diamonds and gold.

Placer diamonds were first discovered in 1867 on the banks of the river. Orange. According to one version, the first diamond was found by a shepherd boy, according to another, by the children of local farmers Jacobs and Njekirk. Perhaps these names are known only to historians these days. But the name of another ordinary Boer farm is now widely known throughout the world, since it gave its name to the huge diamond empire - the De Beers corporation, founded at the end of the 19th century. a native of Germany, Ernst Oppenheimer. And today, this corporation controls the main part of the world diamond market - their mining and sales in South Africa, Botswana, DR Congo, Namibia, Tanzania, Angola, and partly also in Australia and China. Russian diamonds, whose production amounts to 12–15 million carats per year, also gain access to the world market mainly through the De Beers company. Her reign is located here in Kimberley, where in the late 60s. last century, diamonds were found in bedrock deposits called kimberlites. In total, about 30 kimberlite pipes, or explosion pipes, have been explored here, formed as a result of a short-term but very strong explosion-like breakthrough of ultrabasic rocks to the surface of the earth, which occurred under conditions of enormous pressure and very high temperature. But the history of this diamond mining area began with the “Big Pit” (“Big Hope”) in Kimberley, dug by miners who poured here (at the end of the 19th century their number reached 50 thousand). It was here that such famous diamonds as the De Beers diamond (428.5 carats), the bluish-white Porter Rhodes (150 carats), and the orange-yellow Tiffany diamond (128.5 carats) were found.

Soon, new explosion tubes were found north of Kimberley, already in the Transvaal, in the area of ​​the Witwatersrand ridge. Here, not far from Pretoria, the Premier kimberlite pipe, with a diameter of 500 x 880 m, long considered the world’s largest, was explored. In 1905, the world’s largest diamond, named “Cullinan” - after the name of the company’s president, was found at this mine. Premier." This diamond, weighing 3160 carats, or 621.2 grams, eclipsed the glory of even the famous “Koh-i-nora” (109 carats), found in India in the Middle Ages. In 1907, the Transvaal government bought the Cullinan for a fabulous sum at that time of $750 thousand and presented it to the British King Edward VII on his birthday. Recently, a diamond weighing twice as much as the Cullinan was found in South Africa.

Rice. 155. Kimberly's "Big Pit" cross-section

Today, in the foreign world, in terms of total diamond reserves (155 million carats), South Africa is inferior to Botswana and Australia and is on a par with the Democratic Republic of Congo and Canada. In terms of annual production (9-10 million carats), South Africa is inferior to Australia, DR Congo, Russia and Botswana, with gem diamonds accounting for approximately 1/3 of production. Diamonds are still mined in Kimberley itself and in its environs at several mines. And the “Big Pit” with a diameter of half a kilometer and a depth of 400 m (Fig. 155), where mining was stopped back in 1914, remains a kind of main museum exhibit of the South African diamond mining industry.

A Brief History of Gold Mining in South Africa

There is evidence that gold was mined in South Africa for quite a long time, even before the mining industry in the modern sense was formed. However, there is very little evidence regarding gold mining before the 1830s.

The official history of gold mining on the territory of modern South Africa dates back to 1836 with the development of placer deposits in the Limpopo province in the northeast of the country. The province is considered one of the richest in mineral resources, including diamonds and gold.

In 1871, in the east of the country, a nugget of gold was found in the Pilgrim's Creek River, which attracted prospectors who had already survived the gold rushes of California and Australia. In 1873, a gold mine was established here. The development of placers in these places continued for almost 100 years (until 1971) by the Transval Gold Mining company. In 1986, the mining village was declared a national monument, today it is on the UNESCO World Heritage List and has been turned into a tourist attraction.

In 1886, the world's largest field, the Witwatersrand, was discovered in South Africa (from the African Witwatersrand - white water ridge, derived from the name of the ridge), which largely determined the direction of the country's development. The deposit is truly huge: the total area of ​​the ore field is 350 x 200 km. Ore bodies (reefs) stretch for hundreds of meters and kilometers and can be traced to a depth of more than 4.5 km. The average gold content in them is 8-20 and reaches 3000 g/t. Witwatersrand gold played such an important role in the country's history that South Africa's currency, the South African rand, is named after it.

Legends about the presence of gold in the Witwatersrand were widespread among nomadic African tribes. But the gold boom began in March 1886 with the discovery of an outcrop of gold-bearing rocks in the center of the Rand by Australian gold prospector George Harris. He officially registered his application with local authorities. Now a monument has been erected in his honor at this place. However, Harris soon sold his plot for £10, and the government declared the area a free gold mining zone. Believing that the boom would not last long, it set aside a small, triangular-shaped area to carve out as many branding areas as possible (which is why the streets of central Johannesburg are so narrow).

The classic gold rush began. A huge gold mining camp grew up, called "Ferreira Camp", indicating the dominance of the Portuguese.

However, the South African fever was significantly different from the Californian and Australian ones. The fact is that there were few easy-to-develop alluvial deposits in South Africa. The rich gold was contained in the ore, which for the most part lay at considerable depth. Large capital investments were required for underground mining of ore. Because of this, the gold rush in South Africa was not for ordinary people with a pick and a shovel, but for fairly wealthy entrepreneurs.

In 1887, Cecil Rhodes (English and South African politician, businessman, builder of his own worldwide empire, initiator of English colonial expansion in South Africa) founded the Gold Fields of South Africa (GFSA) company. Then, one after another, others began to appear (“Rand Mines” (modern “Randgold”), “Johannesburg Consolidated Investments”, “General Mining and Union Corporation”, “General Mining and Finance Corp”, “Anglo American” (1917), “ AngloVaal (1934). These companies laid the foundation for the South African gold mining industry, which some historians have called the “flywheel” of the country’s development.

In 1898, gold production in South Africa was 118 tons, the country ranked 1st in the world (USA - 96.6 tons, Australia - 91.2, Russia - 32.6) and held its position as the industry leader for 110 years.

In 1970, South Africa recorded a record production level of more than 1,000 tons, which is unlikely to be broken. The bulk of gold is mined in the mines of the Witwatersrand. To date, about 48,000 tons of gold have been extracted from the ore bodies of this deposit. Many mines have already been mined and closed, but some ore bodies are still being mined. Currently, there are more than 750 mines operating in South Africa, with their depth reaching 3500-5000 meters. The deepest mine in the world (5000 m) is located 50 km southwest of Johannesburg. More than 35 thousand people work at the mine.

After the development of the most accessible and rich deposits, the level of gold production began to decline from year to year: in 1977 - 700 tons, 1990 - 605 tons. Changes in the political structure of the country played a role in the further decline in gold mining.

South Africa's gold mining industry today

According to GFMS Thomson Reuters, in 2014, South Africa produced 163.8 tons (6th place in the world), which is 13.2 tons less than a year earlier (177 tons in 2013). /GFMS Thomson Reuters. GFMS Gold Survey 2015/. In general, this corresponds to the general downward trend in the country’s gold mining industry, observed over a fairly long period of time (Fig. 1).

According to official data, there are more than 1,000 mining enterprises in South Africa, of which about 50 operate gold mines and plants (as a base or associated metal). The country's large gold mines (about 35) are mainly concentrated in two provinces - Gauteng and the Free State (Fig. 2).

The gold mining industry in South Africa is dominated by several companies - Sibanye Gold, AngloGold Ashanti, Harmony, which own most of the country's largest gold mines (table). The Great Noligwa, Kopanang and Moab Khotsong mines form the so-called Vaal River complex (total production in 2014 was about 14 tons); "Mponeng" and "Tau Tona" - West Wits complex (total production level in 2014 - about 17 tons).

The largest gold mines in South Africa

		Provinces	Company	Production in 2014, t.*
		Free State
			AngloGold Ashanti
		Free State	AngloGold Ashanti
			AngloGold Ashanti
		Free State
		Free State	AngloGold Ashanti
		Free State
		Free State
		Mpumalanga	Pan African Resources
		Mpumalanga	Pan African Resources
		Free State
		Free State	AngloGold Ashanti
		Free State
		Free State

* data from official websites of companies

South Africa's largest mine, Driefontein(Fig. 3) of the Sibanye Gold company, located 80 km west of Johannesburg. Production in 2014 was 17.7 tons, gold reserves were 229 tons, resources were 711 tons, the average metal content in mined ore was 3.31 g/t, the total production cost was $1,027 per ounce.

Development of the field began in 1952. The mine is officially the most productive gold mining operation in South Africa, with a total of approximately 3,328 tonnes mined. The development license for Driefontein is valid until January 2037, the total area of ​​the site is 8,561 hectares.

The mine operates six underground mining systems (the depth of the mines reaches 3420 m) and three metallurgical plants. The enterprise employs 11 thousand people. The service life is calculated until 2033.

The second largest gold mine in South Africa is Kloof.(Fig. 4) (owned by the same company) is located 70 km west of Johannesburg. Production in 2014 was 17.1 tons, reserves - 215 tons, resources - 911 tons, average gold content - 3.66 g/t, total production cost - $1014 per ounce. This is an underground mine, developed at a depth of 1300-3500 m. The company was organized as a result of the merger in 2000 of several projects (Kloof, Libanon, Leeudoorn and Venterspost). Gold mining began in this area for the first time in 1934. The service life is calculated until 2033. The license for the development of Kloof is valid until January 2027, the total area of ​​the site is 20 thousand hectares, the number of employees is 10.5 thousand people.

Man began to mine gold in those areas of the globe where the earliest civilizations arose: in North Africa, Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, and the Eastern Mediterranean. Soon man moved from simply collecting shiny grains to using primitive tools - stone and bronze picks, wooden or clay troughs. The famous golden fleece, for which Jason and the Argonauts went to Colchis, was also a kind of alluvial gold mining tool - a sheep skin, which was dipped into the water of fast mountain streams to catch the smallest particles of metal.

The history of gold mining is a fascinating novel, which has so far been written only in fragments. This history is closely connected with the great geographical discoveries and human exploration of the planet, with the development of technology and economics, with the evolution of human society, with its revolutionary transformations. It is filled with amazing feats and monstrous crimes, fevers and panics, discoveries and losses.

The question of how much gold has been and is being mined in the world has long been of interest to people, but it was only in the 19th century that plausible estimates of past production were made, and only towards the end of the century did current statistics become satisfactory.

Taking this into account, the figures for the total production of the yellow metal can only be considered as rough estimates. It can be assumed that over 6 thousand years people have extracted over 100 thousand tons of gold from the bowels of the earth. The estimates of many authors come close to this figure. According to calculations by S. M. Borisov, total production (without the USSR) amounted to 93 thousand in 1980. T * .

* (Borisov S. M. Gold in the economics of modern capitalism.- Ed. 2.- M., 1984.- P. 220.)

At different times, different continents and regions of the globe were centers of gold production. Africa was already the main region for metal mining in ancient times, and in the last century there has been a large concentration of its production in South Africa. As a result, the Dark Continent accounts for approximately 1/2 of the total production. More than 1/4 of this value falls on America, mostly in North America. Asia outside the USSR plays a relatively lesser role in world gold mining, although in the Middle Ages fantastic information about the riches of India and surrounding countries was spread in Europe. In terms of production per capita, Australia, along with Oceania, obviously occupies first place among the continents. Although the first gold was discovered there a little over 100 years ago, metal production in this sparsely populated area over the past period accounts for 7-8% of the total. In Europe, a significant amount of gold at that time was mined only in ancient times, and in the Middle Ages and in our time, the old continent does not play a noticeable role in the world picture.

Of course, the levels of production in ancient times and in the Middle Ages, in the 19th century and in our days are completely different. Nowadays, the world produces a little less metal per year than was mined during the millennium from the collapse of the Western Roman Empire to the discovery of America, or, say, about the same amount as during the entire first half of the 19th century. Technical progress in gold production is on par with progress in other sectors of the global mining industry. But, on the other hand, the extraction of the yellow metal faces increasing difficulties, partly common to many minerals, partly specific to it. Industry is forced to switch to poorer ores, penetrate deeper into the ground, and move to remote areas.

How to imagine a mass of gold of 100 thousand. T? Is it a lot or a little? A lot, considering the enormous labor intensity of its extraction. Even today, in gold-rich South Africa, 500 thousand miners, armed with modern equipment, produce less than 700 mines per year. T pure metal, which means on average about 1.5 kg per employee. How hard it was for every grain of metal to be given to a gold miner, armed only with a shovel and a washing tray!

But in comparison with other metals known to man for a long time - not so much, and in some tangible sense - very little. All the gold mined by mankind would fit into a cube with an edge of about 17 m or, say, in a medium-sized cinema hall. The gold mined annually would only fill a small living room.

By the way, about total and annual production. No one is particularly interested in how much oil has been extracted or steel smelted in the entire history of mankind. This is not very important for copper or even silver. But gold is a special item. Oil disappears as it is consumed. Some iron and steel are melted down as scrap. Recycling of copper and especially silver is more significant. But only gold is eternal: once mined, it, due to its natural and social properties, does not disappear, does not go into the ground, water or air. It is possible that your wedding ring is made from gold mined 3 thousand years ago in Egypt or 300 years ago in Brazil. Perhaps this gold has since managed to appear in the form of an ingot, a coin, a brooch, a cigarette case.

Of course, the eternity of gold is some exaggeration. Some of it is consumed irrevocably. Any melting and processing of gold is associated with losses. When gold was in circulation in coins, they were worn out by the touch of thousands of hands. It would seem that this is an insignificant value. But, according to fairly competent estimates, in the 80s of the last century, annual losses from the abrasion of coins in countries that had gold circulation amounted to 700-800 kg metal With the spread of the gold standard in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, these losses were expected to increase significantly.

Once “Literaturnaya Gazeta” published the following joke on page 16 in the form of an announcement or call: “Bury treasures in places specially designated for this!” But for some reason the owners of the treasures do not want to follow this rule and, on the contrary, bury them in the most secluded and unexpected places. Therefore, apparently, no one has ever found or will ever find a lot of gold treasures. It is also very difficult to calculate how much gold was lost at the bottom of the sea as a result of shipwrecks. Modern forms of technical use of gold partly destroy it in the sense that recycling is impossible or uneconomical (thin films, solutions, etc.).

Estimates of lost gold typically range between 10 and 15% of total production. One American author estimated in the 40s of our century the amount of this irretrievably lost metal at 7-8 billion dollars, which then approximately corresponded to 6-7 thousand. T*. The latest estimates are close to this. The research department of the American gold trading company J. Aron and Company calculated that out of the 88 thousand g of metal mined, according to its estimates, by 1980, about 10 thousand died. T.

* (Hobbs F. Gold. The Real Ruler of the World.- Chic, 1943.- P. 125.)

Thus, almost all mined gold is economically active and is in some form suitable for further use. Annual production adds only a very small share to humanity's accumulated reserves of the yellow metal (recently a little more than 1%). No other commodity comes close to gold in this regard.

The reliability of statistical data on gold production increases as we move from hoary antiquity to modern times. Since approximately 2/3 of all metal was mined in the 20th century, and during this period production was increasingly concentrated in large capitalist enterprises with reliable accounting and control, the above figure can be considered quite reliable. However, any official or unofficial figures on gold production for individual countries and groups of countries should be considered only as estimates with a certain degree of reliability. There is a lot of evidence that a significant part of the gold mined by small miners and bought up by private buyers is not taken into account by government statistics, that theft is significant at various stages of the production process, etc. In recent years, due to these factors, production estimates have fluctuated sharply gold in Brazil. The Ashanti Gold Fields Company, operating in Ghana, reported in its 1978 annual report that the sharp increase in the price of gold had caused an unusual increase in buying activity around the mine. During the year, 5% of all personnel with access to gold were arrested for metal theft.

The most approximate estimates of gold production were in the ancient world and in the Middle Ages. The German scientist G. Quiring made scrupulous calculations, using the evidence of ancient authors, surviving documents, geological data and - perhaps most of all - his intuition. He believes that before the discovery of America, about 12.7 thousand were mined in the world. T gold*.

* (Quiring H. Geschichte des Goldes. Die goldenen Zeitalter in ihrer kulturellen und wirtschaftlichen Bedeutung.- Stuttgart, 1948.)

In the ancient world, the main gold-producing areas were Egypt (along with modern Sudan) and the Iberian Peninsula. From Egypt during the times of the pharaohs, many monuments of material culture and writing have survived to this day, testifying to the role of gold in its economy, the progress of mining and smelting technology, and the harsh conditions of slave labor in the mines. The artistic treasures of the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun (14th century BC) are world famous, and among them are wonderful gold items. Gold from Egypt flowed to neighboring countries. For more than a millennium (from the middle of the 2nd to the middle of the 1st millennium BC), the main role in the spread of gold throughout the Mediterranean and beyond was played by the Phoenicians, a maritime and trading people who made amazing journeys for that time, including, according to Herodotus, sailing around Africa.

As Quiring believes, one of the inscriptions from the time of Tutankhamun contains the name of a man who can be considered the first known geologist and mineral explorer. A certain Reni reports that he was sent by the government to search for gold ores. It is very likely that in the ancient “university” at the temple of the god Ptah in On (Heliopolis) they taught mining.

The Egyptians began with the mining of placer gold, but soon moved on to the development of primary deposits and achieved amazing results in this matter. In the Eastern Desert and mountainous regions located in Upper Egypt in a vast area between the Nile and the Red Sea, the remains of ancient mines up to 100 m deep still remain. The Egyptians were the pioneers of many methods of mining, smelting and processing gold. In the wall paintings of the tomb from the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. e. There are very detailed images of these technological processes.

In addition to Egypt itself, gold was mined in the southern countries subject to the pharaohs - Nubia and Kush (modern Sudan). In pursuit of gold, the Egyptians penetrated into Ethiopia and, apparently, reached the territory of modern Zimbabwe. Thus, gold flowed into Egypt from almost all of Africa. Its further movement was largely re-export.

On the Iberian Peninsula (in Spain and partly in Portugal), gold has been mined in some quantities since ancient times. However, the scale of mining increased sharply after the Roman conquest, which began at the end of the 3rd century and ended in the 2nd century BC. e. As usual, gold was initially selected from the coastal sands. Production significantly exceeded that of Egyptian mines when mining began in northern and northwestern Spain. In gold mines, the Romans built complex engineering structures for caving and washing rocks. The total mass of rock processed during mining is estimated by experts at hundreds of millions of tons. Similar scales of work in the gold mining industry were again achieved only in the 19th century.

The famous scientist and writer of antiquity Pliny the Elder, who was in the 1st century AD. e. a high-ranking Roman official in Spain, left a detailed and technically competent description of gold production. About the engineering structures at the mines, he says that they “exceed the work of the titans.” Moving on to the numbers, he reports that in his time only the provinces of Asturias, Galicia and Lusitania gave 20 thousand Roman pounds (over 6.5 T) gold per year. This is a very significant amount even by today's standards.

Gold from Spain was the main source of the formation of a large state reserve, as well as the distribution of gold products among the upper classes of Roman society. In addition, during this period, quite significant quantities of metal were mined in other countries subject to Rome: Gaul (modern France), the countries of the Balkan Peninsula and in Italy itself. Outside the Roman world, the most significant mining was in India and Central Asia.

The Middle Ages were a period of decline in gold mining in Europe. Many techniques that spread during the Roman era were forgotten. The mining of ore gold ceased altogether, only in some places in the beds of rivers and streams people “washed gold” in a primitive way. Early Christianity, passing off need as virtue, preached against gold. From approximately the 9th to the 13th centuries, no gold coin was minted anywhere in Western Europe. Some revival began only in the 13th - 14th centuries in Germany and the adjacent Slavic lands. At the same time, silver mining developed in these areas. From reports of Arab geographers and travelers, we also know about gold mining in various areas of modern Soviet Central Asia, Afghanistan, and India.

In the late Middle Ages, Tropical Africa became the main source of gold production. The Portuguese and other Europeans descended further south along the west coast of Africa in search of the precious metal. The current independent state of Ghana in colonial times was called the Gold Coast: this is how Europeans christened this land in the 15th century.

Medieval scientists tried to solve the problem using alchemy - to find a way to obtain gold from less valuable metals. Polymetallic ores usually contain some amount of gold. When the ore was smelted, gold was released, and it was assumed that it could be mined from silver or copper. This was the source of both honest mistakes and blatant fraud. From alchemy, as is known, the science of chemistry subsequently grew. Alchemy very colorfully brings to life the history of the Middle Ages and the literature of that era, but we cannot attribute a single gram of gold produced to it.

There were many directions in alchemy, but there were some general principles that were introduced by Arab alchemists in the early Middle Ages. They believed that all metals were the result of a combination of sulfur and mercury in varying proportions. The task of artificially obtaining gold in this case was reduced to searching for the proper proportion and methods of combining these two starting materials. Alchemists considered sulfur the father of gold, and mercury its mother.

Belief in alchemy was so universal in the Middle Ages that the English king Henry IV even issued a decree prohibiting anyone other than the king from turning base metals into gold. On the other hand, already at a very early stage of the development of science there were people who spoke about the impossibility of transforming metals and the absurdity of the claims of alchemists. These include, in particular, the great thinker of the medieval East Abu Ali Ibn Sina (Avicenna).

The eternity and indestructibility of gold was, apparently, one of the sources of alchemists’ ideas about some kind of mystical connection with human immortality. Hence the dreams of creating an “elixir of life” based on gold. The association of gold with the Sun as the source of all life on Earth, dating back to ancient times, has the same rational explanation.

According to Quiring, just a thousand years before the discovery of America, about 2.5 thousand were mined in the world. T gold. The discovery of America was the beginning of a new chapter in the history of precious metals. First of all, it was silver. According to the calculations of A. Zetber, whose works are classic in the field of statistics on the production of precious metals, the world production of silver in value exceeded the production of gold until the 30s of the 19th century, and the New World provided a huge share of the production of the white metal *. This fact was of great importance for the fate of the monetary system: it extended the “monetary life” of silver and the predominance of the double (bimetallic) system until the end of the 19th century.

* (See Soetbeer A. Edelmetallproduktion und Wertverhaltniss zwischen Gold und Silber seit der Entdeckung Amerikas bis zur Gegenwart.- Gotha, 1879.- S. 107-111.)

The relative lag in gold mining in America is also explained by the fact that the Spaniards and Portuguese were never able to discover any significant deposits of ore gold, and placer mining could not provide a completely stable and long-term production. Nevertheless, until the discovery of gold in California and Australia in the mid-19th century, South and Central America remained the main gold-mining region of the world. According to Quiring's data, based on Zetber's calculations, in the 16th century America produced over 1/3 of world production, in the 17th century - more than 1/2, in the 18th century - 2/3. But the absolute values ​​of gold production were insignificant by today's standards: in the 16th century, less than 1 thousand tons were mined worldwide. T, in the XVII - 1.1 thousand. T, in the 18th century - 2.2 thousand. T. During the first two centuries, most of the gold was mined in the territory of modern Colombia and Bolivia, and in the 18th century - in Brazil, which during this period moved into first place in the world. Portugal, which then ruled Brazil, was the first country to officially introduce a gold standard monetary system, abandoning silver.

The end of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century were lean times for gold mining. According to Zetber, the average annual gold production reached 24.6 in 1741-1760 T, and then steadily decreased and in 1811-1820 was only 11.4 T. After that, she began to slowly rise *. It must be borne in mind that during this period the industrial revolution was taking place in Western Europe and North America, the production of goods for sale increased sharply, and therefore the need for money increased. Gold did not keep pace with these developments, and in the first half of the 19th century its future as the basis of monetary systems was by no means guaranteed.

* (Ibid.- S. 110.)

In the short period between the depletion of the South American placers and the Californian discovery, Russia rose to first place in the league of gold producers. In 1831-1840, it provided more than 1/3 of world production and retained its leadership until the end of the 40s of the 19th century. Archaeological data and written sources indicate that gold was mined in the Urals and Altai in ancient times. The name Altai itself comes from the Turkic-Mongolian Altan- golden. However, these developments were abandoned and forgotten, and the modern history of Russian gold begins in the middle of the 18th century, when it was rediscovered in the Urals. Subsequently, gold (mainly in placers) was also found in the south of Western Siberia, Eastern Siberia, and the Far East.

During this period, the attention of the West to Russian mining was attracted by the famous German scientist A. Humboldt, who throughout his life was interested in the problems of gold. In 1838, he published a special work on trends in world gold mining, where he cited data on Russia that he received directly from the Russian Minister of Finance E.F. Kankrin. Perhaps such information gave some encouragement to bankers and economists in Western Europe.

A new - and highly romantic - era in the history of gold began in January 1848, when, as Greene writes, following the traditional description of these events, "a carpenter named James Marshall found water in a stream passing through John Sutter's mill, near the confluence the American and Sacramento rivers, grains that seemed to him like gold... At first, Marshall and Sutter tried to keep the news of the discovery from spreading, but rumors about gold were not easy to extinguish, and they soon reached San Francisco, which was small at that time a port with a population of 2,000. By spring, half of California had left their farms and homes and rushed to the gold mines... By the fall of 1848, the first rumors of the finds were already flying over New York. Every day brought fresh news, and excitement grew. What happened over the next few months was without precedent in history. Thousands of people suddenly saw the spark of opportunity to get rich in a few days... Even before President Polk finally confirmed the size of the discovery in his speech to Congress in December 1848, the dump began. in which everyone tried to get to the West Bank as quickly as possible..." * .

* (Green T. Op. cit.- P. 30-31.)

John Sutter (or Johann Sutter), whom we are talking about, was a remarkable person in his own way. The discoverer of Californian gold came from Switzerland and only recently moved to America. He was an enterprising and energetic man, but with a penchant for romantic eccentricities. His turbulent life became the subject of a historical miniature by Stefan Zweig from the series “Humanity’s Finest Hours.” The discovery of gold on his land did not bring Zouter happiness; he died in poverty and obscurity. Zouter was not the first and was not the last of the short-lived lucky ones whom gold ultimately ruined, destroyed, and drove into the grave.

When Zweig speaks of the California discovery as one of humanity's "finest hours," he is referring to the historical significance of the event. The discovery of gold in California, located at vast and insurmountable distances from the centers of civilization, played an important role in the development of capitalism in the 19th century. California gold, which flowed to the East Coast of the United States and Western Europe, poured into the capitalist economy like new blood. It pushed the growth of industry, trusts, large banks, the construction of railways, and the development of world trade. Gold played a particularly important role in the economic development of the United States. It contributed to the development of vast territories in the west and central regions, the economic rapprochement of individual states and territories, and the growth of the transport network.

Thanks to Californian discoveries, the United States quickly stepped into first place in world gold mining and retained it almost until the end of the century, second only from time to time to Australia, where in 1851 its own gold rush began, in many ways similar to the Californian one.

The discovery of gold in California and Australia, as well as the growth of mining in Russia and in some other areas of the globe, resulted in a sharp change in the entire world situation with the yellow metal. In the second half of the 19th century, 11 thousand were mined. T gold - 8 times more than in the first, and twice as much as in the entire era after the discovery of America. Russia’s share, even after the decrease, remained very significant and amounted to about 15%; The US share is estimated at 33, Australia - at 27%.

However, needs grew even faster, since during this period the gold standard was introduced in all major countries and the yellow metal became the basis of monetary systems and world money. Therefore, when by the 1970s the cream of the alluvial deposits had been skimmed off, and no new large and easily accessible ore deposits were found, pessimism spread among capitalists.

In 1877, the Austrian Edward Suess published a book entitled “The Future of Gold,” which sounded quite original at the time, but over the course of a century has become worn out and worn out in numerous repetitions and variations (fate, prospect, chances of gold, etc.). Suess argued that, firstly, future gold production depends decisively on placer deposits; secondly, humanity has already extracted more than half of the gold available to it and the prospects for mining are very unfavorable; thirdly, there will in no way be enough metal for the universal introduction of a gold standard *.

* (See Suess E. Die Zukunft des Goldes.- Wien, 1877.)

All these prophecies turned out to be erroneous, as did many others in the future. The history of gold is truly full of false prophecies and erroneous forecasts. In 1935, the English financial expert Paul Einzig, in a book with exactly the same title - “The Future of Gold” - stated, for example, that “without a doubt it can be said that all countries will not depart from the gold standard.” He also believed that, “undoubtedly, the demonetization of gold would cause its price to fall to a value that is only a fraction of the current one.” * In fact, the countries of the so-called “gold bloc” led by France, which maintained the gold standard for the longest time, moved away from it when the paint had not yet dried on the pages of Einzig’s book. The formal demonetization of gold, carried out on an international scale in the 70s of the 20th century, not only did not cause a fall in its market price and purchasing power, but was accompanied by a significant increase in both indicators.

* (Einzig P. The Future of Gold.- N. Y., 1935.- P. 63, 67.)

Let's go back, however, to the last century. At the moment when Suess made his gloomy forecasts, gold was on the verge of its most brilliant rise. In 1867, rich diamond deposits were discovered in South Africa, on the banks of the legendary Vaal River. This attracted thousands of profit seekers to the godforsaken tiny Boer republic. They soon discovered traces of gold in the neighborhood, but did not attach much importance to it. The first major discovery in the area was made in 1886.

The South African find differed from the sensational discoveries of rich placers in California and Australia, where gold could be taken almost with bare hands. The metal content of the Transvaal ore is relatively small, but extremely constant. Therefore, the gold rush here had a different character: only people who had significant capital to purchase equipment and hire workers could really take part in it.

The Witwatersrand region soon became the world's largest gold mining basin. Here, gold production was first put on an industrial basis, on the rails of a large capitalist economy. Important technical innovations were introduced that made it possible to mine gold ore at unprecedentedly great depths and dramatically increase the percentage of metal extraction from ore. Since the end of the 19th century, the fate of the gold mining industry of the capitalist world has been inextricably linked with South Africa.

In 1886, South Africa produced less than 1 T gold, and in 1898 - 117 T. After a sharp decline associated with the Boer War, production began to rise sharply again. In the first decade of the 20th century, South Africa ranked first in the world in gold production. In 1913, the Union of South Africa (this state emerged as a British dominion in 1910) produced 274 T, or 42% of the global total. The USA was in second place with production of 134 T.

At the end of the 19th century, the last major gold rush of the classical type took place - the Klondike epic in Northern Canada and Alaska, immortalized by the pen of Jack London and the cinema of Charlie Chaplin. However, it had little impact on the main trends characteristic of gold production in the 20th century.

Until this time, gold mining was different from other branches of capitalist industry. It was more like a game of chance than a normal enterprise with good accounting, taking into account costs and benefits. Thousands of gold miners went bankrupt and died, while a few became fabulously rich. In South Africa things went differently. Companies know exactly what their costs are per 1 T ore processed and per ounce of gold mined. They strive to make a profit from gold mining that would be no lower than the profit in other industries. They can maneuver to a certain extent, change the volume of processed ore and metal depending on how costs move.

The gold mining industry of the USA, Australia, Canada, and to some extent pre-revolutionary Russia, where in 1913 49 T. With this figure, Russia ranked fourth in the world after South Africa, the USA and Australia.

In the United States, California remained the most important gold mining region, but at the same time, moderately rich ore deposits began to be developed in Nevada, South Dakota and some other states. Major discoveries in Canada (especially in the province of Ontario) were made already in the 20th century, and production reached significant scale only in the 20-30s, allowing this country to push aside the USA and Australia and take second place in the capitalist world.

The transition from placer deposits to ore deposits that took place everywhere did not exclude, at the same time, significant technological progress in the extraction of placer gold. An important innovation was, in particular, the use of dredges - floating gold factories. Thus, work in the mines also switched to an industrial basis.

In addition to geological and technical factors, the most important factor for gold mining is the financial and economic factor. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, gold was a unique commodity, the price of which was fixed and could not change under any circumstances. It was determined by the gold content of the main currencies, practically the dollar and the pound sterling, and this content has not changed since the 18th century.

The First World War caused the temporary abolition of the solid gold content of the pound sterling and an increase in the price of gold in this currency. But more important changes occurred under the blows of the global economic crisis of 1929-1933.

The devaluation of the pound in 1931 and the dollar in 1934 meant a sharp decrease in the gold content of these currencies and, consequently, an increase in the price of gold. In dollars it rose by 69%, in pounds (by the beginning of the Second World War) - even higher. At the same time, under the influence of the global economic crisis, the prices of other goods, and therefore the costs of the gold mining industry, decreased.

When most industries suffered from the crisis and reduced production, gold companies grew fat and increased production. In 1940, gold production in the capitalist world reached its highest point - 1138 g, including about 40% in South Africa. Canada was in second place, and the United States was in third.

The next three decades were difficult for gold mining in capitalist countries. The mobilization of industry for the war effort caused a sharp decline in production in the United States, Canada and even South Africa. In 1942, the US War Production Administration ordered the temporary mothballing of the mines. Under the influence of inflation, there was a large increase in costs, while the official price of gold in dollars, fixed in 1934, remained unchanged until 1971. Gold mining became less and less profitable, many mines were closed or mothballed. South African industry survived this period more easily: new rich deposits were discovered there, technological progress made it possible to reduce costs, and African labor still cost tens of times less than white workers. Nevertheless, some mines turned out to be unprofitable, and in order to save them from closure, the state in the post-war period was forced to introduce special subsidies from the budget for such enterprises. Similar measures have also been taken in Canada.

In 1945, gold production in the capitalist world amounted to 654 T, with significantly more than half of it occurring in South Africa. By 1962, production exceeded the pre-war peak, and in the second half of the 60s - early 70s it settled at an annual level of 1250-1300 T, with the Republic of South Africa (as the state began to be called in 1961) consistently providing approximately 3/4 of this total.

In total, the richest conglomerates of South Africa produced approximately 40 thousand tons of metal over the century of their operation, or 40% of the total production in its entire history. It is considered certain that at the current level of production, the mines can operate for another 30-40 years. However, progress in the field of geology and technology may lead to an increase in these estimates.

The graph of world gold production in the 20th century has three pronounced humps and three holes. The humps (periods of production growth and peaks) occurred in the years before the First World War, on the eve of the Second World War and before the formal demonetization of gold in the 70s. Accordingly, the pits are for the years of both world wars and for the second half of the 70s. Currently, the curve is creeping up the slope of the fourth hump and in 1986 exceeded the maximum level of 1970 (Table 2).

SourceCurrencies of the countries of the world. Directory.- M., 1981; Gold 1987.Consolidated Gold Fields.- L., 1987.

How much gold have the two largest gold-mining countries produced in history? Investors in precious metals will be quite surprised to learn that the total combined gold production of the two leading countries exceeds 2 billion ounces. Considering that only 8 billion ounces of gold have been mined in recorded history, this is a huge amount.

Here are some facts about the two leading gold producing countries. The country that produced the most gold in history reached its peak production in 1970, and the second-largest producing country in 1998. Interestingly, the largest gold-mining country produced 1,000 tons of gold in 1970, with only one other country approaching in order to produce half of this amount in a year.

South Africa is the world's number one gold producer, producing nearly 1.7 billion ounces since 1871, according to multiple sources.

South African gold mining got off to a slow start in the early 1870s, with no more than 5,500 ounces per year, but by 1896 the country was already producing more than 2.5 million ounces of the sparkling yellow metal annually. It is not surprising that the British Empire decided to wrest control of the Transvaal Colony in South Africa from the Boers. The following chronology of how the Rothschilds controlled the international gold sector through the British Empire is taken from the article "» ( British takeover of South Africa (part 1) ( British Takeover Of South Africa 1) ):

Part Mid 1880s – Gold was discovered in the Transvaal, sparking a gold rush. Unlike other newly discovered gold deposits, South Africa did not need to borrow from Rothschild banks to finance these ventures. Gold mines in the Transvaal were financed by income from diamond mines. And so the British annexed the Transvaal, and, as with diamonds, the international gold sector was controlled by the Rothschilds, and the company . N . M Rothschild and Sons London even set the daily price of gold.

Essentially, the diamond and gold sector has been under British/Rothschild control since then. South Africa became increasingly important within the British/Rothschild Empire.

The Transvaal was still controlled by the Boers, and the British were intent on wresting political control from them. London gave instructions for the military takeover of the Transvaal. 1899

– British troops gather on the Transvaal border and ignore orders to disperse. The Second Boer War begins.– The Second Anglo-Boer War ended with the signing of the peace treaty at Veriniching. The Transvaal and Orange Free State became self-governing colonies of the British Empire.

25 years after the takeover of South Africa by the Rothschilds and the British Empire (1902), it accounted for over 50% of the world's annual gold production, 10+ million ounces.

Interestingly, South Africa produced more gold in 1927 than Australia produced last year (9.5 million ounces)...the second largest gold producer in the world in 2017. So we now know that South Africa is the world's largest gold producer ever, but which country is in second place? The next largest gold-mining country lags far behind, producing only a third of South Africa's 52,700 tonnes.:

The second place in the world is occupied by the USA, which has produced 18,800 tons of gold since 1801

The two largest gold-mining countries in history

metric tons

Gold mining in 1493-2017

South Africa produced 28% of all known gold. The USA accounts for 10%. South Africa + USA = 71,500 t

South Africa – 52,700 t

USA – 18,800 tHartndayWhitePaper

, 2018 Gold Survey and USGS

The two largest gold-mining countries in history

metric tons

Thus, South Africa and the United States produced 71,500 tons of gold, or 38% of known global gold reserves. Apart from the former USSR and Russia, Australia ranks third in total gold production:

South Africa, the US and Australia together produced 85,700 tonnes, 46% of the world's reserves.

South Africa produced 28% of all known gold. The USA accounts for 10%. South Africa + USA = 71,500 t

South Africa – 52,700 t

Total world gold production – 187,000 tons

Australia – 14,200 tUSA – 18,800 tHartndaySources: Summary data on gold mining (1929),

Paper According to the report "» ( Mining Viability in AustraliaTheSustainabilityofMiningIn Australia ), cumulative Australian gold production 1851-2007. amounted to 11,565 tons, plus in 2008-2017. 2,610 t mined (World Gold Survey GFMS

for 2018). I excluded the USSR and Russia due to incomplete and questionable data provided by these two countries. However, according to estimates "» ( Total data on gold miningSummarizedDataonGold Production

), published by the US Bureau of Mines in 1929, Russia in 1801-1927. produced 89 million ounces of gold. In comparison with other leading gold producers we have the following:

Cumulative gold production in 1801-1927

Transvaal, South Africa = 219 million ounces

US = 214 million ounces

Australia = 147 million ounces

Russia = 89 million ounces If you study the data published in the CIA report " » Soviet gold mining, reserves and exports before 1954 , production in the USSR increased significantly in the 1930s and after World War II. However, after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, gold production fell sharply.

However, even if Russia were to release all its gold production data, I doubt its total gold production would surpass the United States. However, Russia's total gold production could be greater than Australia's if real data were available.

To get an idea of ​​how much gold these leading gold-mining countries produced in troy ounces, take a look at the following chart:

The Three Largest Gold Mining Countries in History

troy ounces

metric tons

South Africa, the US and Australia together produced 2.755 million ounces, 46% of global reserves.

Total global gold production – 6.012 million ounces

South Africa – 1.694 million ounces

USA – 604 million ounces

Australia – 457 million ounces

Australia – 14,200 tUSA – 18,800 tHartndaySources: Summary data on gold mining (1929),, 2018 Gold Survey, Australia's Mining Viability (2009) and USGS

South Africa produced 1.694 million ounces, the United States produced 604 million ounces, and Australia produced 457 million ounces. In total, these three countries produced 2.7 billion ounces, or almost half of the total global gold reserves. Think about this for a minute. South Africa's production is more than one and a half times the 32,600 tonnes, or 1.05 billion ounces, of the world's central banks' current gold reserves.

Moreover, although South Africa has minted large quantities of gold Krugerrands over the past 50 years, most of its gold has ended up on the market. According to the data GoldBarsWorldWide. com, from 1967 to 2013 51 million ounces of gold Krugerrands were minted. If we include data for 2014-2017. (World Gold Exploration ), cumulative Australian gold production 1851-2007. amounted to 11,565 tons, plus in 2008-2017. 2,610 t mined (World Gold Survey), then a total of probably 54+ million ounces of gold Krugerrands were minted.

The peak year for gold Krugerrands was 1978, when the South African Mint minted more than 6 million ounces. However, the country's total gold production that year was 22.6 million ounces. Thus, South Africa supplied approximately 75% of its gold production to the market, while 25% was used to mint gold Krugerrands. In 2013, South Africa produced 5.5 million ounces of gold and minted only 862,000 ounces of gold Krugerrands. Consequently, in 2013, 84% of South African gold was available to the market, and 16% was used to issue gold Krugerrands.

Going into the research, I knew that South Africa was likely to be the largest gold producer in history, but it struck me that one country, in fact one small mining area, produced more than a quarter of the world's gold. Even the mighty California Gold Rush of 1848-1888. yielded only 55 million ounces of gold.

Although the United States produced a lot of gold in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, production peaked in 1998 at 11.8 million ounces. Over the past 20 years, the United States has produced nearly 5,500 tons (175 million ounces) of gold, or nearly 30% of the nation's total production since 1801.

Unfortunately, only a small percentage of investors have purchased gold and silver. I believe this figure is now less than 1%. While some in the alternative media community are convinced that this is a "grand conspiracy" by the elite, I believe it has more to do with the rich's desire for profit and the public's desire for more goods and services than they can afford.

It's worth remembering that most people would rather buy and use a nice car, boat, van and a host of high-tech gadgets than buy a bar of gold or silver to simply look at. The public is 'underinsured' and 'overburdened with a lot of stuff and crap'. When I say “underinsured,” I don't mean just healthcare, but include all aspects of preparing for the HARD TIMES ahead.

Most Americans would rather spend their excess money on THINGS they consume and use rather than protecting their family when THINGS GO REALLY TERRIBLE.