http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/10-countries-sitting-on-stockpiles-of-gold/ss-BBnmLw7 According to this report there is all kinds of gold out there. BTM
While watching a History Channel episode about the formation of the Earth, it was said that all of the gold that combined to form the core of the planet has never been touched. The gold that has been mined in the outer crust is from meteor strikes a billion or more years ago.
rzage I thought so too. With a 20 trillion debt and the US reports over 8 thousand tons, well that would take care of a bunch of that debt. So 8 thousand tons is = 257,205,896.47 troy oz at 1074.00/oz Big bucks don't you think? BTM
I think it would be worth it to sell at least half of it to fix our infrastructure and retire some debt .
Supply is out there. It comes down to how viable a mine is. And unfortunately a lot of decent gold mines are sitting under nature reserves. Environmental, health and safety impacts etc.
Not saying it never will be done , but it seems to me the only way to create an element is with giant colliders like Fermilab and the one in Europe . So I doubt it will be feasible in our lifetimes to create PMs below cost . I'd love to hear from of our science physics members though .
It comes down to energy and the cost thereof. Much, much easier to transmutate gold into lead than the reverse. At the current cost of driving nuclear accelerators, I remember one book said ( 1980s) it would cost close to a billion an ounce ( counting wear and tear to the equipment , power source, not counting the lead. Maybe do it the way the Russians did ( below source) and have a reactor go rogue and radiate lead shielding, scientists, workers, and everything for a distance around it. http://chemistry.about.com/cs/generalchemistry/a/aa050601a.htm
