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Why Gold is Money: A Periodic Perspective

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Why Gold is Money: A Periodic Perspective

Why Gold is Money

The economist John Maynard Keynes famously called gold a “barbarous relic”, suggesting that its usefulness as money is an artifact of the past. In an era filled with cashless transactions and hundreds of cryptocurrencies, this statement seems truer today than in Keynes’ time.

However, gold also possesses elemental properties that has made it an ideal metal for money throughout history.

Sanat Kumar, a chemical engineer from Columbia University, broke down the periodic table to show why gold has been used as a monetary metal for thousands of years.

The Periodic Table

The periodic table organizes 118 elements in rows by increasing atomic number (periods) and columns (groups) with similar electron configurations.

Just as in today’s animation, let’s apply the process of elimination to the periodic table to see why gold is money:

  • Gases and Liquids
    Noble gases (such as argon and helium), as well as elements such as hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine and chlorine are gaseous at room temperature and standard pressure. Meanwhile, mercury and bromine are liquids. As a form of money, these are implausible and impractical.
  • Lanthanides and Actinides
    Next, lanthanides and actinides are both generally elements that can decay and become radioactive. If you were to carry these around in your pocket they could irradiate or poison you.
  • Alkali and Alkaline-Earth Metals
    Alkali and alkaline earth metals are located on the left-hand side of the periodic table, and are highly reactive at standard pressure and room temperature. Some can even burst into flames.
  • Transition, Post Transition Metals, and Metalloids
    There are about 30 elements that are solid, nonflammable, and nontoxic. For an element to be used as money it needs to be rare, but not too rare. Nickel and copper, for example, are found throughout the Earth’s crust in relative abundance.
  • Super Rare and Synthetic Elements
    Osmium only exists in the Earth’s crust from meteorites. Meanwhile, synthetic elements such as rutherfordium and nihonium must be created in a laboratory.

Once the above elements are eliminated, there are only five precious metals left: platinum, palladium, rhodium, silver and gold. People have used silver as money, but it tarnishes over time. Rhodium and palladium are more recent discoveries, with limited historical uses.

Platinum and gold are the remaining elements. Platinum’s extremely high melting point would require a furnace of the Gods to melt back in ancient times, making it impractical. This leaves us with gold. It melts at a lower temperature and is malleable, making it easy to work with.

Gold as Money

Gold does not dissipate into the atmosphere, it does not burst into flames, and it does not poison or irradiate the holder. It is rare enough to make it difficult to overproduce and malleable to mint into coins, bars, and bricks. Civilizations have consistently used gold as a material of value.

Perhaps modern societies would be well-served by looking at the properties of gold, to see why it has served as money for millennia, especially when someone’s wealth could disappear in a click.

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Charted: If Gold Was Shared Equally, How Much Would You Get?

There are 244,000 metric tons of known gold reserves. And 8 billion people. Here’s the answer to: what if gold was shared equally?

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This chart examines a hypothetical question of how much gold there is in the entire world for every person by dividing all known reserves by current global population.

Charted: If Gold Was Shared Equally, How Much Would You Get?

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Desired for millennia because of its shine and rarity, gold is still the safe haven asset (with fairly decent returns) in times of uncertainty.

This chart examines a hypothetical question of how much gold every person in the world would get if all discovered gold was shared equally.

Data for this graphic is sourced from the U.S. Geological Survey and from the UNโ€™s World Population Prospects 2024.

Thereโ€™s Not a Lot of Gold for 8 Billion People

Turns out, there really isnโ€™t a lot of gold in the world.

To date, only 244,000 metric tons of gold have ever been discovered. This includes historical production and current known discoveries.

That works out to about 30 grams (about one troy ounce), or six gold rings, for every single human being on the planet.

CategoriesFigures
Gold Discovered
(Metric Tons)
244,000
World Population8,161,972,572
Gold per Person
(Metric Tons)
0.00002989
Gold per
Person (Grams)
29.89 (or one ounce)

Of course, jewelry isn’t the only use of gold (though it does account for the largest share of above-ground use).

Central banks have quite a bit in their reserves, with the U.S. holding the most at roughly 8,000 tonnes.

At sixth place China (2,200 tonnes) has been steadily increasing its reserves in the past year, in a bid to diversify foreign exchange reserves away from the U.S. Treasury bonds.

Largest Gold Producers

And then thereโ€™s all the gold beneath the ground, spread out in massive mines across the world. Of them, Australia is home to two in the top 10, and is also the second-largest producer.

Whoโ€™s the largest producer? Thatโ€™s Chinaโ€”even though it doesnโ€™t have any large mines on the same scale as those found in the U.S. and Australia. Instead it has numerous smaller ones, and coupled with efficient smelting infrastructure, ends up producing more volume.

Finally, South Africa held the top supplier spot between 1900โ€“1970. Its production peaked at about 1,000 tonnes annually, the most by any country in a single year.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

Need even more gold graphics? Good thing we have a few. Check out: Visualizing Gold Consumption vs. Domestic Supply to see which countries use the most gold.

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Charted: The Global Mining Industry, by Market Cap

Australia tops the list, with its major mining companies totaling $353 billion in market cap.

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This graphic breaks down the market value of the entire global mining industry.

Charted: The Global Mining Industry, by Market Cap

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free onย iOSย orย Androidย and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

This graphic breaks down the market value of the entire global mining industry, as of Jan. 16, 2025, using data from Companiesmarketcap.com.

Note that this data only covers publicly-traded companies.

Australia and Canada Lead

Australia tops the list, with its major mining companies totaling $353 billion in market capitalization. The country is home to two of the biggest miners in the world, BHP and Rio Tinto.

CountryCompanyMarket Cap (USD)
๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ AustraliaBHP Group125B
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ China China Shenhua Energy103B
๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ AustraliaRio Tinto97B
๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ U.S.Southern Copper77B
๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ U.S.Freeport-McMoRan58B
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ญ SwitzerlandGlencore55B
๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ฆ Saudi Arabia Maaden49B
๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ U.S.Newmont48B
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ CanadaAgnico Eagle Mines43B
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ฉ Indonesia Bayan Resources42B
๐Ÿ‡ฒ๐Ÿ‡ฝ MexicoGrupo Mรฉxico39B
๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ AustraliaFortescue36B
๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง UKAnglo American37B
๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ท BrazilVale37B
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ ChinaZijin Mining57B
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ India Coal India27B
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ CanadaBarrick Gold28B
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ CanadaWheaton Precious Metals27B
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ CanadaNutrien26B
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ CanadaFranco-Nevada24B
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ CanadaTeck Resources22B
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ CanadaCameco22B
๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง UKAntofagasta21B
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ IndiaVedanta20B
๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ‡บ RussiaNornickel18B
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ CanadaIvanhoe Mines15B
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ ChinaYanzhou Coal Mining15B
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ CanadaKinross Gold13B
๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ AustraliaNorthern Star12B
๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ‡บ RussiaSeverstal11B
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ CanadaFirst Quantum Minerals11B
๐Ÿ‡ฐ๐Ÿ‡ฟ KazakhstanKazatomprom10B
๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ AustraliaSouth3210B
๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ U.S.Royal Gold9B
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ ChinaGanfeng Lithium9B
๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ช Sweden Boliden8B
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ CanadaAlamos Gold8B
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ CanadaPan American Silver8B
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ ChinaTianqi Lithium7B
๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ AustraliaEvolution Mining7B
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ CanadaLundin Mining7B
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ IndonesiaNMDC7B
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ CanadaLundin Gold6B
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ฉ India United Tractors6B
๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ต JapanSumitomo Metal Mining6B
๐Ÿ‡ฒ๐Ÿ‡ฝ Mexico Fresnillo6B
๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ฑ PolandKGHM6B
๐Ÿ‡ฟ๐Ÿ‡ฆ South AfricaHarmony Gold6B
๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง UKEndeavour Mining5B
๐Ÿ‡ฟ๐Ÿ‡ฆ South AfricaImpala Platinum5B
๐ŸŒ Global TotalAll Companies Combined1.4T

Rich in minerals, Australia is the world’s largest producer of iron ore, essential for steel production, and lithium, a key component in batteries.

While Canadaโ€™s economy has struggled to keep pace with its southern neighbor, its mining industry remains formidable.

The countryโ€™s mining sector has a combined market capitalization of $344 billion, making it the second-largest globally.

Canada, the worldโ€™s second-largest country by area after Russia, has vast natural resource wealth. It is particularly rich in gold, copper, nickel, and potash.

United States with miners totaling $228 billion and China with companies totaling $206 billion come in third and forth, respectively.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

If you enjoyed this topic, check out thisย graphic showing the number of mines that must be developed to meet the expected demand for energy transition raw materials and chemicals by 2030.

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