Prospectors, Panners, Miners Will Find Gold for Years to Come

In the last few hundred years, almost 200 million ounces of gold have been found in California by mining, prospecting and panning . . . but that’s only a tiny fraction of the gold that is still there, according to a geologist quoted in this recent article.  In fact, some geologists estimate that there is still more than a hundred times that much gold still waiting to be extracted from the State of California alone.

The article goes on to give some interesting details about modern underground gold mining, in which huge rocks are pulverized into powder to yield just a spoonful of gold dust.  It’s a lot of work, but it can result in big returns for the gold mining company and employees.

Obviously, when you’re talking about a mineral like gold that doesn’t simply grow back after it has been mined, there will eventually be a time when no gold is left to extract.  But with so much gold left on Earth, that day might not come for hundreds of years.

So if you’re a interested in gold prospecting, panning or metal detecting for gold nuggets, don’t think that there’s any chance that all of the deposits have already been mined.  There’s still plenty of gold to find out there, and will be for many, many more years to come.