It takes 115 years to produce gold: this is the complex process

When we talk about gold mining, we imagine the typical miner with its helmet and full of dust, but the process is much more complex than that.A process that uses more than one million people and more than three million indirectly and that in December 2017 had contributed more than 170,000 million dollars to the world economy: the equivalent of Ecuador's GDP, Ghana and Tanzania together.In fact, in eight of the main gold producing countries mining companies generated more than 10% of GDP.And, until December 2017, almost 190,000 tons of gold had already been extracted throughout history.Listen to the complete report on the following podcast.

Taking into account that, apparently, this precious metal is indestructible, all that gold remains in one way or another with us.Is it a lot, it's little?A report from the World Gold Council says that, if we joined all the gold that exists and form a cube, each side of the cube would only measure 21 meters, that is, the same as a building of about 8 floors.

Although gold has not yet ended and we can continue to take more, specifically, 3,000 tons of gold are added to the market every year.But how much has this gold been found since this gold was found until it has been put in the market?It is a long and expensive process, specifically it could be extended up to 115 years.

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— Lyn Kimberley Mon Mar 15 15:54:15 +0000 2021

The first process is the exploration.Companies have to get down to work to carefully study those areas where everything indicates that there could be gold (normally, places with concentrations of minerals such as copper and silver).Once it is considered that there can be gold, they have to pierce the earth to collect samples and then create a model of the site and study the most efficient and economical way and get the gold.If everything goes out, the process could take at least 1 year, but if the thing is complicated, it could be delayed up to 10 years.

Once that is controlled, the development phase is entered, which includes the planning and construction of the mining project having to obtain the relevant licenses and permits, raise the necessary infrastructure and hire personnel.Only that could already take up to 5 years.And finally, get into flour: start extracting the minerals from the site.

When it has already been extracted, a processing has to recover the metal.Later they will be converted into linges still unrefined that they can contain all metals together (gold, copper and silver) and then we would have to take those ingots to the refinery to separate metals and get pure gold.And a process as complicated as this can take up to 100 years to complete.

In total, about 115 years of maximum to obtain the bright and golden precious metal that we put in the jewels and in which we invest our money.It will become that immortal gold that, in theory, cannot be destroyed and that will spend its whole life from one place to another and from one hands to others.