According to estimates by the US Geological Survey (2020), there is still just over 53,000 tons of economically recoverable gold in the ground worldwide. That's less than 30% of the total amount of gold present above ground. With an annual gold mine production of 3,000 to 3,500 tonnes, we can only continue for a few more decades. The global production of gold mines is barely increasing, a phenomenon that is also known as 'peak gold'. The following graph shows that a plateau has formed at just over 3,500 tonnes. It is becoming increasingly difficult to extract more gold from the ground.