Facts about gold and gold mining
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Gold is a soft metal that is extremely strong and heavy.
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Gold is 19 times heavier than water. If you compared a gallon of water to a gallon of gold, that would be like comparing your average cat (8 pounds) to a mountain lion (160 pounds)!
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Iron is only about 7.5 times heavier than water. A gallon of iron would weigh about the same as a collie. That means gold is about 2 and a half times heavier than iron!
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Gold has been discovered on every continent, even Antarctica.
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Three Olympic sized swimming pools can hold all of the gold ever mined.
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Scientist believe most of Earth’s gold came from meteorites that crashed into the planet millions of years ago.
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Pure gold melts at 1945 degrees Fahrenheit!
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The fear of gold is called aurophobia.
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A single ounce of gold can be rolled out into 50 miles of wire!
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The largest gold nugget found in the U.S. weighed 109 pounds and was found in California.
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The largest gold nugget ever found came from Australia and weighed over 173 pounds.
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If you made a solid gold basketball, it would weigh 317 pounds.
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Gold never rusts.
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It is believed that 88,000 tons of gold has been mined since gold was first discovered.
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Gold has been mined for over 7000 years.
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NASA used gold to make the records of information that travel with the Voyager space craft.
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An Olympic Gold medal contains only 1% gold.
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More gold has been mined in the last 150 years than the 7000 years prior.
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Your body contains trace amounts gold.
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You can actually eat gold!
A 10.7 Troy ounce nugget on display at the Museum of the North in Fairbanks, Alaska.
Gold display at the Museum of the North in Fairbanks, Alaska