Global gold reserves: Only 60,000 tons left to be mined

Roughly 64,000 tons of gold remained available for mining by the end of 2024. This estimate by the US Geological Survey (USGS) is based on currently available technology and the world’s gold deposits classified as economically viable. Subtracting the nearly 4,000 tons produced in 2025, this leaves around 60,000 tons accessible via the available extraction methods, according to the World Gold Council.

Largest part of today’s gold holdings mined since 1950

As the 1970s discovery of over 3,000 gold jewelry artefacts in the Varna burial ground in Bulgaria clearly showed, mankind has been mining and processing gold for at least 6,500 years. However, two-thirds of the approximately 220,000 tons of gold produced since were mined after 1950. This is in part due to the increasing standing of gold as an investment. Today, central banks hold around 17 per cent of global gold reserves, with a further 22 per cent serving as a portfolio stabilizer and inflation hedge for institutional and private investors.

Focus on recycling and innovative mining technologies

The recycling of precious metals from scrap gold and electronic waste now accounts for around 25 per cent of total gold production – and is rising. A recent discovery in Liaoning Province in China, the most significant since 1949, shows that innovative mining technologies could also expand the remaining minable gold reserves beyond the current figure of 60,000 tons. The Dadonggou deposit is estimated to contain around 1,444 tons of gold spread within 2,586 million tons of ore. The state-owned Liaoning Geological and Mining Group is now investigating whether economically viable extraction is possible at an average content of 0.56 grams of gold per ton of ore. Depending on the results of the feasibility study and environmental impact assessment, mining of the enormous gold deposit could begin in a few years.