Fifteen Fast Facts About Gold

Today Bank of America published its eighth annual Gold and Gold industry primer, and extremely useful report chock full of information including sections on economic drivers, gold supply and demand trends, industry fundamentals and sector valuations. But the main reason why this year’s edition is remarkable, is because with gold trading at $1,770, it is just $100 away from its record hit in Sept 2011, an all time high price which even the skeptics say will be in the rear-view mirror in short notice as a result of the insanity taking place with central bank money printers.

Which is why we will have several extended articles covering some of the more fascinating BofA findings, but until then here – courtesy of BofA’s Jason Fairclough and team – are fifteen fast facts about gold:

1. Gold never oxidizes, never gets rusty and is shiny forever;
2. Gold has been mined for over 5,000 years;
3. Tutankhamen’s coffin contained ~1.5 tonnes of gold;
4. The WGC estimates that total above ground gold stocks stand at 197,576t, sufficient to satisfy global gold demand for 40+ years;
5. Gold is virtually indestructible. Still though, If every single ounce of this gold were placed next to each other, the resulting cube of pure gold would only measure around 21 meters on each side;
6. Illustrating how ductile gold is, a single ounce of gold can be stretched into a gold thread 5 miles long;
7. The first gold coins appeared around 700 BC;
8. If all the gold in the world was pulled into a 5 micron wire, it could wrap around the earth 11.2 million times;
9. The word “gold” comes from the Old English word “geolu,” meaning yellow;
10. In every cubic mile of sea water there is 25 tons of gold, equal to around 10 billion tons of gold in the oceans;
11. Three James Bond movies have gold in the title: GoldenEye , Goldfinger, and The Man With The Golden Gun;
12. The last Olympics which awarded medals made of solid gold was during summer 1912 in Stockholm;
13. Modern day Olympic gold medals contain a minimum of six grams of gold and with the balance roughly 92.5% silver;
14. There are more than 400 references to gold in the Bible; and
15. Gold is becoming scarcer. The WGC estimates below ground gold reserves of 54,000t, which means “peak gold” was passed many years ago.