Impressive Gold Trove Valued at $2 Quadrillion Found in the Ocean, but a Substantial Drawback Exists!
In the depths of our oceans, a treasure trove of gold waits to be claimed. A 2018 study published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society revealed that the oceans contain an estimated 20 million tons of gold, but at extremely low concentrations, making traditional methods of extraction impractical.
This vast oceanic gold fortune is spread thinly across the globe, with a liter of seawater containing only femtomoles of gold. To put this into perspective, one gram of gold is found in every 100 million metric tons of seawater. Despite the potential wealth, the process of extracting gold from the oceans remains financially unfeasible due to the sheer volume of seawater that would need to be processed.
The road to making ocean gold extraction feasible is fraught with challenges. In 2018, a study in the same journal developed a material that can extract gold from seawater in just two minutes. However, scaling up this technology to extract gold profitably from the ocean remains a significant challenge.
Traditional methods of extracting gold from seawater, such as filtering, would be nearly impossible to harvest large amounts of gold. An alternative approach, proposed in a 1941 Nature study, suggested an electrochemical method for extracting gold from seawater. While this method showed promise, it was found to be impractical due to its high cost.
As the dream of ocean gold mining continues to elude us, asteroid mining has emerged as a more practical and profitable alternative. Asteroids contain vast amounts of precious metals, and some scientists believe that even the Moon's craters are filled with valuable materials like platinum.
Meanwhile, researchers continue to explore innovative technologies in the hope of tapping into the oceanic gold fortune. Ongoing advancements in materials science and electrochemical processes could one day make ocean gold extraction feasible. For now, however, efforts are focused on small-scale applications, such as recovering gold lost during industrial processes.
The Mediterranean Sea, Atlantic Ocean, and North Pacific Ocean are among the regions with higher concentrations of gold, offering potential hotspots for future exploration. As technology advances and the economic viability of ocean gold mining improves, the quest for ocean gold may yet prove to be a profitable endeavour.
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