More than 193,000 metric tons of gold has been mined from the earth.
If you could take all of this gold and shape it into a solid cube, each side of the cube would be 72 feet (22 m) high.
South Africa, the United States, and Australia lead the world in gold production.
Since the 1880s, South Africa has been the source for a large proportion of the world’s gold supply, with about half of all gold ever produced having come from South Africa.
Although gold is primarily used as a commodity, it has many modern industrial uses including dentistry and electronics.
Many people invest in gold in the form of bullion coins or bars as protection against inflation or other economic disruptions.
