Goldman Sachs: No More Mineable Gold by 2035
Posted by Brian Ford on April 01, 2015
Goldman Sachs research indicates that the world’s mineable gold reserves could be fully depleted within the next 20 years. “The combination of very low concentrations of metals in the Earth’s crust, and very few high-quality deposits, means some things are truly scarce,” said Goldman Sachs analyst Eugene King. The investment bank’s research also shows that below-ground supplies of diamonds, platinum, zinc, copper and nickel could expire within 20 to 40 years.
Adding to the quandary is the fact that some gold market analysts expect production of gold bullion to peak in 2015. Only 2,860 tons of gold were mined last year, and gold production costs have risen from $263 per ounce in 2001 to over $1,000 per ounce last year. Additionally, mines are producing less gold each year on average, and only one mine in the world produced more than 300,000 ounces of gold last year (the Zijinshan mine in the Fujan Province of China).
According to King, discoveries of new gold veins have been falling rapidly in recent years. This means that discovery and mining capabilities must improve dramatically for gold production to remain steady. If no innovation takes place then “peak gold,” the date when the maximum rate of global gold extraction is reached, could happen within the next decade.
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