Are there still large undiscovered gold deposits?

[Lust4Life]

@Measure_for_Measure

Thanks for your informed post. Given the discussion in this thread, I would think there might be a decent chance of finds in Antarctica. It had tropical weather 65 million years ago after all and even had a temperate forest as recent as 3 million years. So the land has been exposed to nonarctic geologic processes for quite a while.

I believe mining in Antartica is banned by international treaty.

[Fish_Cheer]

@Lust4Life

I believe mining in Antartica is banned by international treaty.

At least until 2048.

[wolfman]

There are a few places where gold is known, but not in high enough concentration to be profitable.

In Colorado a while ago they decided to reinvigorate some old nearly dead mining towns. There wasn’t a whole lot of space in the narrow mountain valley, so they had to move a bunch of dirt for casinos and hotels. There was a decent bidding war for the rights to carry the dirt away. Because mining for mining sake wasn’t expected to be worth it, but as long as someone else was bringing machines up and dumping dirt on you truck for you(not to mention all the lawyering and paperwork costs) it was good money to sort through it for gold and silver.

[Chefguy]

Gold deposits continue to be discovered in Alaska. The Pebble Mine project, which is meeting with considerable opposition, was more or less identified back in the 1980s, but additional potential continued to be identified as recently as 2010 (from Wiki, bolding mine):

In 1992 Pebble was estimated to contain 3 million tonnes of copper and 11 million ounces of gold in 1 billion tonnes of ore.
In 2004 Northern Dynasty had outlined, through additional drilling, over 4 billion tonnes of ore, none of it in the yet undiscovered “Pebble East.”

Estimates in February 2008 indicated: Pebble West contains (at a copper-equivalent cut-off of 0.30%) Measured and Indicated Resources of 18.8 billion pounds of copper, 31.3 million ounces of gold, and 265 million pounds of molybdenum, contained within 3026 million tonnes of ore and Inferred Resources of 5.9 billion pounds of copper, 9.1 million ounces of gold, and 993 million pounds of molybdenum contained within 1130 million tonnes of ore.;[11]

Pebble East contains (at a copper-equivalent cut-off of 0.6%) Inferred resources of 49 billion pounds of copper, 45 million ounces of gold, and 2.8 billion pounds of molybdenum contained within 3860 million tonnes of ore.[8]

In February 2010 an updated resource estimate was released reporting that, based on a total of 509 drillholes and at a 0.30% copper equivalent cutoff (CuEQ), the Pebble deposit mineral resources (East and West combined) comprise: • 5.94 billion tonnes of ore as Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources grading 0.78% CuEQ, containing 55 billion pounds of copper, 67 million ounces of gold and 3.3 billion pounds of molybdenum; and • 4.84 billion tonnes of ore as Inferred Mineral Resources grading 0.53% CuEQ, containing 25.6 billion pounds of copper, 40.4 million ounces of gold and 2.3 billion pounds of molybdenum.[24]

[Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension]

@Sage_Rat

Supposedly, there’s about 230 trillion kilograms of gold in the ocean. The ‘discovery’ would be finding a way to extract it cost effectively.

@septimus

I’ve always thought bio-engineers “should” design some sort of plankton with a special affinity for metals. :dubious:

Estimates of gold, as well as other metals, in seawater have dropped precipitously since the 70s, as clean techniques have replaced methods with a lot of contamination. Nowadays an oceanographer attempting to measure metals in seawater uses special lines, sampling equipment and a clean-room-style lab space. Seawater is not going to produce significant amounts of gold anytime soon.

[Chimera]

Lots of it mixed in with other stuff here and there.

The Flambeau Mine near Ladysmith Wisconsin produced 160,000 tons of Copper, 330,000 ounces of Silver and 33,000 ounces of Gold during it’s 4 year lifespan (1993-1997).

They’re looking at some mixed metal mining in northern Minnesota, deposits that were previously not economically viable, and those deposits contain very small amounts of Gold in with the Copper, Nickel, Paladium and other metals.