ST. LOUIS (MineFund.com) -- Half the world's gold in the ground is concentrated in just five countries. Three quarters of all gold reserves are found in just ten nations. Few surprises there; the rankings have been quite static for the past three decades. However, South Africa's dominance has declined rapidly over the last decade and we anticipate it falling from first place by 2011 as more of its resource base falls victim to unkind economics. That will mark the end of an era as the country has dominated the world gold scene for a century and a quarter.
For the full listing, please click here
Whilst South Africa has the most gold reserves, Canadian domiciled companies have a stranglehold on the world's gold mineable gold. Fully two-fifths of global gold reserves, some 458 million ounces worth $503 billion at current prices, are owned or controlled by Canadian companies. That's double the next nearest rival, South Africa followed closely by the United States.
Canada's control over so much of the world's gold is considerably higher than the country's stake in other minerals, where Australia, Britain, South Africa, China and Brazil play a larger role. Canada's mining heritage has combined with an innovative banking sector and strategic trade diplomacy to transfer the world's gold mining finance center to Toronto from London.
Once shareholdings are broken out though American individual and institutional investors are estimated to indirectly own half of the world's gold reserves. That's about 587 million ounces worth $704 billion. It's sobering to place that value in perspective - it's less than the money Europe is using to bail out Greece, and it's less than the cash and cash equivalents of the S&P 500 companies. Just the cash flow for American companies in 2009 alone was estimated at $1.5 trillion, which is more than the total in situ value of all the world's economic gold.
