Gold — one of the most well-known metals that underpins economies, crowns royalty, and encircles fingers — is more than just a terrestrial treasure. It is, more so, an extraterrestrial relic.
On Earth alone, gold is estimated to be more than four billion years old, with around 216,265 tonnes of gold mined throughout its entire history.
To put that amount of mined gold into perspective or a single cube, the World Gold Council says it would measure 22m on each side. This is vastly different compared to 1.5 million tonnes of silver, as Mining.com.au previously reported.
But before the precious metal was seen on crowns or circled around one’s finger — or even before there was enough to pile into a 22m sized cube — gold bred in a corner of the universe that is far out of our reach.
Gold came from the expanses of space, during a process known as supernova nucleosynthesis which occurs when a star explodes.
This supernova process does not just create gold, as coin and bullion dealer Chards reports, the process manufactures half of the elements in the periodic table including platinum and uranium.
Once a supernova has burst, intense pressure and energy create the exact conditions for heavy elements such as gold to form. The elements are then dispersed into space, where they eventually become incorporated into new stars and planets.
In 2017, two astronomers observed the collision of two neutron stars which confirmed that this event can create gold, platinum, and other heavy elements, as reported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
During this process, these explosive deaths of stars emit huge amounts of energy, with temperatures reaching up to 100 million kelvin.
For reference, the hottest place in the centre of the sun is at least 10 million kelvin — making it about 30,000 times hotter than boiling water.
So the supernova nucleosynthesis is essentially 10 times hotter than the sun, which is hot enough to initiate helium fusion in the core.
A cosmic journey
Gold is not considered native to the planet we call home, Earth, rather it is believed to be a cosmic traveller in the universe. But, how did this space-born element make its way to Earth?
According to Physical Gold, gold arrived on Earth through meteorite bombardment — which refers to a period of intense asteroid and comet impacts that occurred in the inner solar system over 3 billion years ago.
As a result of this meteorite bombardment, gold became embedded in Earth’s crust over geological time scales.
Gold’s story on Earth, with its rich and lustrous history, is considered a complex journey. It is primarily formed through geological processes like hydrothermal and magmatic activity, such as volcanic activity, erosion, and chemical reactions.
Gold’s story on Earth, with its rich and lustrous history, is considered a complex journey
Due to the diverse geological processes involved, pinpointing an exact timeframe for gold formation is considered challenging.
However, interestingly enough, researchers have estimated that the entire process can take up to billions of years, as reported by Robinson’s Jewelers. During these processes, heavy elements including gold migrate towards the core as Earth cools over eons.
A key player in this process is iron, as APMEX reports that gold has a natural affinity for iron and is selectively combined with the most used and cheapest metal to sink into the core.
Gold’s global business
Not only are different elements combined with gold, but the bright yellow metal is spread across the entire Earth rather than being concentrated in one or a few specific areas.
The Department for Energy and Mining reports that gold deposits can be categorised into two distinct categories in which the precious metal is found — primary and secondary deposits.
Primary gold deposits, which can also be referred to as lode or hard rock deposits, are the original locations where gold was deposited from mineralising fluids. These deposits form through hydrothermal processes, where hot, gold-bearing fluids circular through cracks and fissures in the Earth’s crust.
Physical Gold says exploring and mining primary gold deposits can be challenging, as they are often located deep underground and may require complex mining techniques to extract the gold-bearing ore.
Meanwhile, secondary deposits are created when primary deposits are weathered and eroded, and the released gold is transported by wind, water, or ice and deposited in new locations.
The common locations for secondary deposits include riverbeds, soil, and glacial deposits. Physical Gold says mining secondary deposits involve techniques such as panning, sluicing, or dredging to extract gold particles from the sediment or bedrock.
While secondary deposits may not contain the same abundance of gold as primary deposits, they still are considered a significant source of this precious metal.
Primary and secondary deposits are scattered across the entire world, with some regions possessing extensive gold reserves compared to others.
According to the Department of Industry Science and Resources (DISR), Australia is the third largest gold producer as of 2023, exporting 258 tonnes in 2023-24, valued at $33 billion.
The DISR reports Australia has the largest known global share of gold resources, totalling 22%.
As per Physical Gold, much of the world’s gold is found in regions with ancient geological formations, such as archean greenstone belts, where gold-bearing rocks are abundant.
These belts, formed billions of years ago, provide ideal conditions for the concentration of gold.
The World Gold Council says gold mining takes place in every continent except Antarctica, making it a global business in its own right.
At a country level, China was the largest gold producer globally in 2024, accounting for around 10% of the world’s production, accounting for 380.2 tonnes, as reported by the World Gold Council.
The second largest producer in 2024 was Russia, accounting for 330 tonnes, followed by Australia accounting for 284 tonnes of gold.
Meanwhile, the world’s top importer of gold was Switzerland accounting for 23% of the world’s imports, as reported by the DISR March 2025 quarterly report. China is ranked the second importer, accounting for 18% of the world’s gold imports, followed by the UK totalling 10%.
On the other hand, the world’s top exporter of gold is the US accounting for 9%, followed by Australia and Canada with 4% of the world’s exports.
From the explosive heart of dying stars to the crowns of royalty, gold’s journey is nothing short of a cosmic journey.
As the world shapes it into jewellery, trades it in markets, or locks it away in vaults, gold’s story shows that the metal is more than a symbol of wealth, it is an extraterrestrial relic.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Mining.com.au, DISR, iStock & NASA