national geographic says

cm1179 · 1 Apr 2011 at 23:19

''The world's oceans contain enough gold to give two pounds to every person on the planet.''

i've never even thought about the fact that there is gold in the oceans. is anyone digging it up or should i get my scuba gear out?

Theophany · 1 Apr 2011 at 23:20

How much gold is that per square mile of ocean though? We know less about the deepest depths of the ocean than we do (theoretically, at least) about billions of miles of space. Might sound like a lot of gold, but the oceans are pretty darn vast!

Cleeecooo · 1 Apr 2011 at 23:27

Theophany said:
How much gold is that per square mile of ocean though? We know less about the deepest depths of the ocean than we do (theoretically, at least) about billions of miles of space. Might sound like a lot of gold, but the oceans are pretty darn vast!

Basically, whilst wed get £2 each, it would cost atleast £15 each to fund it

Greenlizard0 · 1 Apr 2011 at 23:30

If true than that isn't incentive not to go into the oceans..

Kouba · 1 Apr 2011 at 23:33

I believe its 2 pounds in weight Cleeecooooo

Greenlizard0 · 1 Apr 2011 at 23:34

daelo · 1 Apr 2011 at 23:34

Whats the area of the worlds oceans... compare that to the 5~6 billion people on the planet and see if it works out

cm1179 · 1 Apr 2011 at 23:36

Cleeecooo said:
Basically, whilst wed get £2 each, it would cost atleast £15 each to fund it

errr

joemo13 · 2 Apr 2011 at 00:02

Wouldn't that be around £13billion, if £2 each or if two pounds 13billion pounds of gold. That seems far too much!

Amp34 · 2 Apr 2011 at 00:38

Why do you think Alchemists in the past spent so much time playing with seawater?

Also I read/watched somewhere that all the gold mined in the world so far would fit into two olympic sized swimming pools!

Angilion · 2 Apr 2011 at 00:56

6 million tonnes of gold in the sea seems implausible to me, but it's not like it matters. Just suppose that a mighty god-wizard used their magic to take it all out and distribute it equally to everyone so that we all had just under a kilo of gold each, completely free of charge.

We'd all have a handful of metal that wasn't valuable or very useful.

thedoc46 · 2 Apr 2011 at 01:05

After watching a documentary on how difficult it is to mine it out of dry land, i'll go ahead and say don't bother !!

Cosimo · 2 Apr 2011 at 08:07

Quick, I'll go get my spade. No wait.....

Le_Petit_Lapin · 2 Apr 2011 at 08:49

thedoc46 said:
After watching a documentary on how difficult it is to mine it out of dry land, i'll go ahead and say don't bother !!

Mine it?

Surely you don't need to mine it, its just in particulate form in the water itself, all you need is a giant hose and some way of filtering it out without collecting all the other crap?

I say that like its an easy task...

Paul11 · 2 Apr 2011 at 08:52

gold is in the earth, and there is earth under the sea

its hard enough to get the stuff out on dry land

so to start digging under the sea at the moment is not a viable option

Combat squirrel · 2 Apr 2011 at 09:03

The gold isnt in the seabed floor its atomic gold in the water itself.

No1newts · 2 Apr 2011 at 09:10

They mean two pounds weighted or two pounds ala £2?

I don't mind the government funding fifteen quid so I can get my free two quid

Dabbles · 2 Apr 2011 at 09:13

No1newts said:
I don't mind the government funding fifteen quid so I can get my free two quid

Who funds the government? Do you work in the public sector?

Paul11 · 2 Apr 2011 at 09:16

Combat squirrel said:
The gold isnt in the seabed floor its atomic gold in the water itself.

oh i seee.....

No1newts · 2 Apr 2011 at 09:17

Dabbles said:
Who funds the government? Do you work in the public sector?

Damn caught out, forgot that we are funding the government. Saturday morning brain here