Real Assets
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.
Real Assets
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?

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 UNโs World Population Prospects 2024.
Thereโs Not a Lot of Gold for 8 Billion People
Turns out, there really isnโt 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.
Categories | Figures |
---|---|
Gold Discovered (Metric Tons) | 244,000 |
World Population | 8,161,972,572 |
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 thereโs 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.
Whoโs the largest producer? Thatโs Chinaโeven though it doesnโt 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 1900โ1970. 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.
Real Assets
Charted: The Global Mining Industry, by Market Cap
Australia tops the list, with its major mining companies totaling $353 billion in market cap.

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.
Country | Company | Market Cap (USD) |
---|---|---|
๐ฆ๐บ Australia | BHP Group | 125B |
๐จ๐ณ China | China Shenhua Energy | 103B |
๐ฆ๐บ Australia | Rio Tinto | 97B |
๐บ๐ธ U.S. | Southern Copper | 77B |
๐บ๐ธ U.S. | Freeport-McMoRan | 58B |
๐จ๐ญ Switzerland | Glencore | 55B |
๐ธ๐ฆ Saudi Arabia | Maaden | 49B |
๐บ๐ธ U.S. | Newmont | 48B |
๐จ๐ฆ Canada | Agnico Eagle Mines | 43B |
๐ฎ๐ฉ Indonesia | Bayan Resources | 42B |
๐ฒ๐ฝ Mexico | Grupo Mรฉxico | 39B |
๐ฆ๐บ Australia | Fortescue | 36B |
๐ฌ๐ง UK | Anglo American | 37B |
๐ง๐ท Brazil | Vale | 37B |
๐จ๐ณ China | Zijin Mining | 57B |
๐ฎ๐ณ India | Coal India | 27B |
๐จ๐ฆ Canada | Barrick Gold | 28B |
๐จ๐ฆ Canada | Wheaton Precious Metals | 27B |
๐จ๐ฆ Canada | Nutrien | 26B |
๐จ๐ฆ Canada | Franco-Nevada | 24B |
๐จ๐ฆ Canada | Teck Resources | 22B |
๐จ๐ฆ Canada | Cameco | 22B |
๐ฌ๐ง UK | Antofagasta | 21B |
๐ฎ๐ณ India | Vedanta | 20B |
๐ท๐บ Russia | Nornickel | 18B |
๐จ๐ฆ Canada | Ivanhoe Mines | 15B |
๐จ๐ณ China | Yanzhou Coal Mining | 15B |
๐จ๐ฆ Canada | Kinross Gold | 13B |
๐ฆ๐บ Australia | Northern Star | 12B |
๐ท๐บ Russia | Severstal | 11B |
๐จ๐ฆ Canada | First Quantum Minerals | 11B |
๐ฐ๐ฟ Kazakhstan | Kazatomprom | 10B |
๐ฆ๐บ Australia | South32 | 10B |
๐บ๐ธ U.S. | Royal Gold | 9B |
๐จ๐ณ China | Ganfeng Lithium | 9B |
๐ธ๐ช Sweden | Boliden | 8B |
๐จ๐ฆ Canada | Alamos Gold | 8B |
๐จ๐ฆ Canada | Pan American Silver | 8B |
๐จ๐ณ China | Tianqi Lithium | 7B |
๐ฆ๐บ Australia | Evolution Mining | 7B |
๐จ๐ฆ Canada | Lundin Mining | 7B |
๐ฎ๐ณ Indonesia | NMDC | 7B |
๐จ๐ฆ Canada | Lundin Gold | 6B |
๐ฎ๐ฉ India | United Tractors | 6B |
๐ฏ๐ต Japan | Sumitomo Metal Mining | 6B |
๐ฒ๐ฝ Mexico | Fresnillo | 6B |
๐ต๐ฑ Poland | KGHM | 6B |
๐ฟ๐ฆ South Africa | Harmony Gold | 6B |
๐ฌ๐ง UK | Endeavour Mining | 5B |
๐ฟ๐ฆ South Africa | Impala Platinum | 5B |
๐ Global Total | All Companies Combined | 1.4T |
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 Canadaโs economy has struggled to keep pace with its southern neighbor, its mining industry remains formidable.
The countryโs mining sector has a combined market capitalization of $344 billion, making it the second-largest globally.
Canada, the worldโs 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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