Some fiures of costs of gold extraction of So.Africa mines.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...es-as-margin-squeeze-erodes-output?cmpid=yhoo

Doesn't look good. Canadian mines appear much better.

 

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that is crazy how you can lose money with a gold mine. its not like it used to be.

 

What is so surprising?

Chris

 

When production costs exceed the price of gold on the open market, the mines lose money. In other words, What does it costs to get the gold out of the ground and refine it? What is the price gold is selling at? Gold is about $1250.00 per ounce. One of the mines in the article is new and production costs are $1900.00 The difference is a loss.

 

Here's a link about gold production, consumption, prices and a whole lot more.

http://www.numbersleuth.org/worlds-gold/

 

That it is not the same. Gold dose not make you money. Surprise!

 

Interesting article! But I read in another article that all the gold ever processed could fit into a 60 foot cube. Even rarer, all the osmium ever processed could fit into the back of your pick up truck, if you have one. I own a 5+ gram sample of it.

 

I read that comment, too, but the key to it is the phrase "ever processed". How much still remains in the earth?

Chris

 

Every country has different costs associated with mining. Some countries have cheaper labor, insurance and safety requirements, security, fuel, machinery and regulatory compliance. In the USA and probably Canada, there are huge environmental concerns about mining - in fact it's the environmental concerns that all but shut down the gold rush here in Ka-lee-forn-ee. There used to be massive hydraulic mining setups all across the sierras.

One thing is a constant... The deeper they dig, the higher the cost per unit of material processed. It's easy to pick up gold off the ground. It's much more expensive to tunnel deep into a mountain side.

The other part of the equation is the amount of refined ore per ton of material processed. If you are going deeper into the mountain and the yield is decreasing, you are going to go negative at some point.

Except for things like civil unrest, I don't think you should lump an entire country's mines into one bucket.

 

Good question. 15 years ago, I bought a research book from John Emsley on the Elements. In it, he gives numerous stats on the Elements, including estimated abundance of each Element in Earth's crust. Ofcourse, estimates vary depending on various factors, like discovering new deposits, revisions on data etc. But, it's still an interesting guide book for lovers of precious metals, and Elements in general.

 

The

The current price is $980.00 per refined ounce. It is an extremely rare mineral.

 

Osmium should be kept sealed, as it can form osmium tetraoxide when exposed to air ( oxygen), a very very poisonous compound. I used it when I was doing transmission electron microscopy 'staining' in graduate school. Personally I consider plutonium as less toxic, although I wouldn't accumulate either one as a rare element or not.

 

Wanna take it one step further? How much gold is still in the earth's (molten) core?

Chris

 

Interesting! I like learning backgrounds on people. Yeah, I learned about osmium tetraoxide, bad stuff. My 5.2 gram osmium is glued to card board with my other precious metals. I just hope my osmium sample never gets close to an emery board. Ha, ha!

 

I saw an article by a reputable geologist from MIT when I was there stating the extractions planet wide were estimated at only 15-20% tops....

 

I vaguely recall watching a program on the formation of the earth and how precious metals like gold were drawn into that formation. I wish I could recall which channel it was on and the name of the program. Does anyone remember?

Chris

 

There are interesting articles on the net about gold and volcanism. Volcanoes bring it up to the surface. Rather dangerous sometimes.

 

The World is coming to a big turning point.

One big reason is Oil. How much Gold/Silver to be pulled/can be pulled out of the ground is not important and has little importance. What is important is getting what you can with in reason Gold/Silver. Understanding the Market its moves along with reasons why.

Oil is and will run out 110%.

All prices now in the Market for Commodity's are bottoming one last time then I am sure based on Charts a period of Flat Line.

My advice buy and store all Money Based Items Gold/Silver along with Food Items and living items as in soaps etc.

If you find you do not need the Food items as they have been in storage to long give them to a local Church with at least a year left on the consume date.

 

Hope you've upgraded the suspension. A small truckload, say 1.5 cubic yards, would weigh over 20 tons.

 

One other precious metal known to emerge from volcanoes is rhenium. This metal is so rare, no mineral of it has ever been known to exist, and rhenium is never found in any ore other than molybdenite in trace amounts.