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12 Stunning Visualizations of Gold Shows Its Rarity

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For the companies exploring for gold, a deposit that has more than one gram of gold for every tonne of earth is an exciting prospect. In fact, in our 2013 report summarizing the world’s gold deposits, we found that the average grade of gold deposits in the world is around that amount: about 1.01 g/t.

Think about that for a moment. One gram (0.035 oz) is equal to the mass of a small paper clip. This small amount of gold is usually not even in one place – it is dispersed through a tonne of rock and dirt in smaller amounts, most of the time invisible to the naked eye. For some companies that have the stars align with easy metallurgy, a deposit near surface, and open pit potential, this gram per tonne deposit may even somehow be economic.

It’s hard to believe that such a small amount of gold could be worth so much, and that is why great visualizations can help us understand the rarity of this yellow metal. Luckily, the folks at Demonocracy.info have done the heavy lifting for us, putting together a series of 3D visualizations of gold bullion bars showcasing the world’s gold that has been mined thus far. Note: these visualizations are a couple of years old and optimistically have the value of gold pegged at US$2,000 per oz, presumably for the ease of calculations.

For those interested, we have also put together a similar slideshow on the topic, showing how much gold, silver, copper, and other metals are mined each year.

Gold bullion bars in lower denominations
Smaller denominations of gold plates: 1 gram, 5 grams, 10 grams, 20 grams, and 1 troy oz of gold.

Gold bullion bars including a 1 kilo bar
Larger denominations of gold plates: 50 grams, 100 grams, 250 grams, 500 grams, and 1 kg of gold.

400 oz gold bar
This 400 oz gold bar, at $2,000 per oz gold, is worth the $800,000 cash beside it. The gold bar is extremely heavy, weighing more than three full milk jugs.

One tonne of gold
Here’s what one tonne of gold looks like. At $2,000 per oz, it’s worth $64.3 million.

Truck full of gold
Gold is so heavy that the suspension of an average truck would break if it held anymore than pictured above. Even if the truck’s suspension broke, the load of gold in the back could buy 2,660 brand new trucks at an MSRP of $40,000 per truck.

10 tonnes vs 100 tonnes of gold
Here’s 10 tonnes of gold compared to 100 tonnes of the yellow metal.

Semi-truck carrying the legal maximum weight in gold
This semi-truck is carrying the maximum load it can legally carry, which is about about 25 tonnes. Here there are 24.88 tonnes of gold, worth $1.6 billion.

B2 Bomber with how much gold it costs
The Northrop Grumman B2 Spirit Bomber program cost $44.75 Billion for a total of 21 units built, which averages to $2,130,952,380 per unit. Shown here is the amount of gold it costs to buy one unit.

The United States' Gold Reserves
Here’s the entire gold reserves of the United States government, which is 8,133.5 tonnes.

World gold reserves
Here’s the world’s gold reserves by government circa 2012. This is slightly outdated, with China and Russia both having significant increases since then.

All the gold in the world
All gold mined in history, stacked in 400 oz bars. The 166,500 tonnes here is actually divided into four levels: the bottom level is jewelry (50.5% of all gold), the 2nd level is private investment (18.7%), the third level is world governments (17.4%), and the highest level is other uses for gold such as industry (13.4%).

All the gold in one cube
Lastly, we finish off with an image of all of the world’s mined gold in one cube with dimensions of 20.5m. If it was all melted, it would fit within the confines of an Olympic Swimming Pool.

Want to learn everything you need to know about gold in about 20 minutes? Our five-part Gold Series covers everything from its rich history, supply and geology, demand drivers, investment properties, and market trends.

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Mining

White Gold: Mapping U.S. Lithium Mines

In this graphic, Visual Capitalist partnerered with EnergyX to explore the size and location of U.S. lithium mines.

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Teaser graphic of a map that shows the sizes of the top U.S. lithium mines.

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The following content is sponsored by EnergyX

White Gold: Mapping U.S. Lithium Mines

The U.S. doubled imports of lithium-ion batteries for the third consecutive year in 2022, and with EV demand growing yearly, U.S. lithium mines must ramp up production or rely on other nations for their supply of refined lithium.

To determine if the domestic U.S. lithium opportunity can meet demand, we partnered with EnergyX to determine how much lithium sits within U.S. borders. 

U.S. Lithium Projects

The most crucial measure of a lithium mine’s potential is the quantity that can be extracted from the source.

For each lithium resource, the potential volume of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) was calculated with a ratio of one metric ton of lithium producing 5.32 metric tons of LCE. Cumulatively, existing U.S. lithium projects contain 94.8 million metric tons of LCE.

RankProject NameLCE, million metric tons (est.)
1McDermitt Caldera21.5
2Thacker Pass19.1
3Tonopah Flats18.0
4TLC Lithium10.7
5Clayton Valley (Century Lithium)6.3
6Zeus Lithium6.3
7Rhyolite Ridge3.4
8Arkansas Smackover (Phase 1A)2.8
9Basin Project2.2
10McGee Deposit2.1
11Arkansas Smackover (South West)1.8
12Clayton Valley (Lithium-X, Pure Energy)0.8
13Big Sandy0.3
14Imperial Valley/Salton Sea0.3

U.S. Lithium Opportunities, By State

U.S. lithium projects mainly exist in western states, with comparatively minor opportunities in central or eastern states.

StateLCE, million metric tons (est.)
Nevada88.2
Arkansas4.6
Arizona2.5
California0.3

Currently, the U.S. is sitting on a wealth of lithium that it is underutilizing. For context, in 2022, the U.S. only produced about 5,000 metric tons of LCE and imported a projected 19,000 metric tons of LCE, showing that the demand for the mineral is healthy.  

The Next Gold Rush?

U.S. lithium companies have the opportunity to become global leaders in lithium production and accelerate the transition to sustainable energy sources. This is particularly important as the demand for lithium is increasing every year.

EnergyX is on a mission to meet U.S. lithium demands using groundbreaking technology that can extract 300% more lithium from a source than traditional methods.

You can take advantage of this opportunity by investing in EnergyX and joining other significant players like GM in becoming a shareholder.

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