The World's Largest Gold Deposit – and It's Accessible to Everyone

As incredible as it sounds, millions of tons of gold lie in accessible locations worldwide. However, extracting them isn't easy.

Humanity has been fascinated by gold for thousands of years, symbolizing wealth, power, and prestige. While most of it is found deep in mountains or scattered in riverbeds, the oceans hide a surprising secret: they contain the largest natural gold reserve ever discovered.

NASA estimates that nearly 20 million tons of gold are dissolved in seawater. To understand the scale, consider that throughout history, humans have mined only about 200,000 tons of gold, 100 times less. If all the ocean's gold were melted into a single block, it would form a cube just 22 meters (72 feet) wide. And the surprises don't stop there, the Earth's core is believed to hold 2 million trillion tons of gold, according to geologists.

However, extracting gold from the oceans is a daunting challenge. The gold is dispersed in tiny concentrations across vast amounts of water. Current technology cannot make the process viable, despite the lure of such a vast reserve.

But gold isn't the ocean's only hidden treasure. Beneath the seabed, near underwater ridges, deposits of metals like copper, silver, and gold are concentrated in formations called black smokers, chimney like structures releasing mineral, rich fluids from Earth's depths. These regions have already attracted mining companies, and in 2017, Papua New Guinea issued the first ever permit for undersea mining, potentially beginning a new gold rush.

This pursuit of resources, however, comes with serious environmental risks. The ecosystems around black smokers are fragile and home to rare species that depend on their unique chemistry. Disrupting these habitats could cause irreversible damage, destroying hundreds of square kilometers of marine life annually and upsetting delicate food chains.

As tempting as the economic potential may be, the environmental costs are staggering. Protecting the ocean's ecosystems while exploring its resources is one of the greatest challenges we face. Ultimately, the greatest treasure of our blue planet might be learning to safeguard it for generations to come.