List with the World's 10 biggest gold mines. Some of them are actually increasing production: http://www.mining.com/web/worlds-top-10-gold-deposits/
That was a good read. I guess you can order the list in a lot of different ways, but they declare that at the start of the article. I was expecting more than one Australian mine in this list (based purely on gossip not any research).
True, but (particulalrly true in the RSA) it's at the cost of their lower grade ore, by running their fixed and mobile plant the ground (figuratively speaking). They're getting out what they can, while they can with no longer term strategy. Exploration stopped more than a decade ago as the socio-political outlook worsened. The Uzbek/Mongolian operations are reported to have some v-shady owners. The PNG operators are in a similar boat regarding an expensive unstable/corrupt political environment. Adding to their problems are risky geological conditions; Grassberg's pit development was hindered by an enormous fault (you can see it on the mountainside on the top right of the picture) Lahir's pit still has volcanic gas and steam coming out of the ground. Someone has to load explosives into that ground and hope they don't cook off before they've loaded the whole shot. i.e. the biggest producers are now the riskiest
What is very interesting is that (overall), South African production has plummeted... That could happen elsewhere in the World as well. Right now I'm not sure about how much gold is getting out of Russia and China. Those who say "China is not exporting gold" are at least naive, to say it softly. Aren't they selling Pandas?
What importance does gold mining have, considering that the annual mine production hung around 2600 tonnes for 14 years (1997-2010) and around 2970 (2011-2014), yet the price nearly 4-folded over this period. Apparently, gold mining mattered little to the gold price. Apparently, gold stockpiling and destockpiling did.
