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Mark Sundstrom's avatar

That photo of the placer mining reminds one of how difficult those conditions were.

re: the "all the gold ever mined" quote is interesting and made me ask how much is undiscovered. I remember reading that there is gold in the ocean waters that's not practical to recover, and so there is an estimate that the amount mined is about 1% of the total estimated to be in the ocean. Have you heard similar numbers?

Thank you and BTW I think it's never trivial or pointless to be taking small looks at nature.

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Richard I Gibson's avatar

Thanks! Yes, I think I recall something suggesting a huge, but obviously diffuse, amount of gold and other elements in ocean water. A common estimate is 100 times the amount mined is in the sea water (i.e. your 1% value), but there are numerous other estimates.

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