20 million tons of gold lies in Earth's oceans — But don’t expect it to be mined anytime soon
There are about 20 million tons of gold dissolved in seawater. Scientists have been working on efforts to extract this gold, which could be worth $2 quadrillion. However, there is yet to be a breakthrough.
Trillions worth of gold is present in the oceans
Earth's oceans are home to a mind-boggling treasure. According to various studies, the seas are hiding gold worth trillions of dollars. Scientists have studied ways to extract this gold, but it is not exactly a simple task. The gold is dissolved into the water, with one gram of gold found in every 100 million metric tons of seawater. The question arises, how can this gold be extracted?
How much gold is present in the oceans?
Scientists think that there are millions of tons of gold that could be worth $2 quadrillion by current estimates. Estimates suggest that there are around 20 million tons of gold dissolved in seawater. Mining this gold has often been discussed in studies, although a solution has not been found.
Where did the gold come from?
The gold reaches the oceans through natural processes. One of them is land erosion, that is, gold slowly seeps into the sea from rocks and other natural objects. Rain and rivers gradually break up the rocks, causing trace amounts of gold present in them to enter the seas.
Hydrothermal vents release gold into the oceans
Another process involves hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor. This especially happens in regions where tectonic plates meet, leading to fluids containing dissolved minerals, including gold, being released because of the heat. Wind also often blows small particles of gold into the oceans.
How to extract gold from the ocean?
Gold mining from oceans is an extremely complicated process. Oceans cover nearly 70% of Earth, and gold is present in tiny amounts in vast areas. One litre of seawater might contain only femtomoles of gold. This means removing it is extremely tough, as it is almost undetectable.
Challenges with extracting gold
Ocean mining remains a technological and financial challenge. A study done in 1941 and published in Nature proposed an electrochemical method which would have cost five times more than the overall value of the gold itself.
Soaking gold from the ocean
Another method published in 2018 in the Journal of the American Chemical Society proposed using a material that could soak up gold like a sponge. However, scaling it up to extract large amounts of gold profitably remains a challenge.
Future of ocean mining
Current efforts are focused on collecting gold that is lost through industrial processes. Another area which can pull resources is space mining. Asteroids contain huge amounts of valuable minerals, and mining these space rocks might become a possibility in the future.
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