China produced 455 metric tons of gold in 2016!

Did you know that China produced 455 metric tons of gold in 2016, or 18.5 billion dollars in today's prices!

South Africa was the leading country in gold production for many years, but as of 2016, South Africa ranked 7th, with that year's production of 140 metric tons.

Shiny gold ingot bars!

Some more interesting trivia facts on Gold:

• The chemical symbol of Gold is Au

• Pure 24K gold can easily be molded with the hands. 

• Tutankhamen's coffin is made of gold, turquoise and lapis lazuli.

• Gold is actually edible!  There are upscale desserts made with shavings of gold leaf flakes.

• The precious yellow metal has been found on every continent on Earth.

• There is about 0.2 milligrams of gold in the human body, mostly in the blood.

• More gold has been recovered from a ton of old computers than from 17 tons of gold ore.

• There is nearly 20 million tons of gold in the world's oceans.

• The higher the carat weight the gold, the better the purity.

• Talk about hot! Gold melts at 1945 degrees Fahrenheit or 1063 degrees Celsius.

• The city-state of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates rewards children 2 grams of Gold for every 2.2 pounds or 1 kilogram of weight lost.

• Aurophobia is the fear of gold.

• Mr. T's gold collection at one time was worth $120,000!

• The most valuable gold coin in the world comes from Australia and is 99.99% pure gold.  This $1 million dollar coin weighs 2,205 pounds or 1,000 kilograms and is worth $45 million dollars!

• More than 52,000 tons of gold still remains in the ground and has a value of $2 trillion dollars.

• Eros, an asteroid that is near to Earth, has 20 billion tons of gold!

• A single ounce of gold can be drawn out into a fine wire 50 miles long!

• The most expensive gold iPhone has 135 grams of 24K gold and is worth $15 million dollars.

• Human hair contains small amounts of gold.

• The Sun contains an extremely small amount of gold; in fact, six ten-billionths!

• Three Olympic sized swimming pools can contain all of the gold ever mined in the world!

• There is only 1.34% of gold present in Olympic gold medals!

Personal thoughts/reflections:

I have actually had the exciting opportunity of holding a long heavy bar of gold in a plastic box at the Mel Fisher museum in Key West, Florida, in the Spring of 2010.  This gold bar came from a 15th century sunken Spanish galleon, Nuestra Señora de Atocha that famous treasure hunter, Mel Fisher and his crew found in Key West in 1985.

The sad news came in August of 2010, when 2 men brazenly entered into the museum after hours and  broke the plastic box apart, stealing the precious gold bar.  The gold bar, which had a value of $550,000, was never recovered and neither were the men.