BHP warns Australian mining not ready for low-cost competitors
The boom in demand from China’s industrialization is now “past the period of aggressive growth,” BHP’s Australia President said.
Agnico Eagle’s Meadowbank open-pit gold mine in the Nunavut Territory of Canada
Number one Barrick Gold’s output drops in 2014, but fellow Canadian firm Agnico Eagle adds 30% to production ounces.
In 2014, preliminary estimated gold production by the top publicly-traded and non state-owned gold mining companies amounted to 30 Moz, in line with the 2013 totals.
Three out of the 10 miners suffered a decline in their attributable gold output while six of them achieved growth.
With 6.25 Moz of gold produced in 2014, Canada’s Barrick Gold Corp. (TSE:ABX) holds first place in global ranking, well ahead of its competitors.
Compared to 2013’s 7.17 Moz, Barrick’s gold output declined by 13%, mainly because of significant drop in output at its Cortez Mine (-33%), as well as a number of gold mines in Australia and USA which Barrick sold during the year.
The US-based Newmont Mining Corporation (NYSE:NEM) ranks second in the global gold competition and produced about 4.85 Moz of the precious metal in 2014, a 4% decline on 2013 (5.07 Moz), due to a significant decrease of gold output at its North America’s operations (-16%) and decline at Newmont’s Australia/New Zealand operations (-6%).
Third-ranked AngloGold Ashanti Limited (NYSE:AU), reported its second consecutive growth in annual production. In 2014, company mined out 4.44 Moz of gold, or 8% more than 2013 totals (4.11 Moz).
Fourth-ranked Goldcorp Inc. (TSE:G) produced 2.87 Moz of gold in 2014, including discontinued operations, or 7.5% more than in 2013 (2.67 Moz). This increase was due to development of production at Penasquito (Mexico, +41%) and Pueblo Viejo (Dominican Republic, +36%) mines, and commissioning of Cerro Negro (Argentina) and Eleonore (Canada) mines.
Provisional attributable gold production by 10 leading companies in 2014/2013, Moz of gold except Gold Fields and Kinross, where Moz of equivalent gold used (data retrieved from corporate reports)
Another Canadian company Kinross Gold Corporation (TSE:K), fifth in world gold production rankings, produced 2.71 Moz of gold equivalent in 2014. This volume is slightly exceeded the Kinross’ guidance of 2.5-2.7 Moz of gold equivalent and is 3% higher than 2013 production totals (2.63 Moz of gold equivalent).
Sixth in the ratings, Australian Newcrest Mining Limited (ASX:NCM), produced approximately 2.33 Moz of gold in 2014 calendar year, which is 1% lower than 2013 output (2.36 Moz).
South African Gold Fields Limited (NYSE:GFI), currently ranked seventh, produced 2.22 Moz of gold equivalent in 2014, or 10% higher than in 2013 (2.02 Moz). This increase is mainly due to the inclusion of a full year’s production from the Yilgarn South assets in 2014 compared with only one quarter in 2013.
In eighth place, Russian origin Polyus Gold International (LON: PGIL) produced 1.7 Moz of gold, a 3% increase from its 2013 tally of 1.65 Moz.
South Africa’s Sibanye Gold Limited (JSE: SGL & NYSE: SBGL), which split from Gold Fields in February 2013, enters at ninth position with its first full year output. In 2014, Sibanye produced 1.59 Moz of gold, or 11% more than in 2013 (1.43 Moz)* from its four Witwatersrand mines.
Canadian Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd (TSE:AEM) gold output jumped by staggering 30%, from 1.1 Moz in 2013, to 1.43 Moz in 2014, thanks to new mines coming on stream, including Goldex mine (Canada) and La India mine (Mexico), as well as acquisition of 50%-share in Canadian Malartic mine.
This allows Agnico Eagle to jump two positions up in the world rankings, from 12th to tenth, pushing Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) out of the top 10. Production at US-based Freeport – primarily a copper producer and owner of the iconic Grasberg mine Indonesia – decreased by 3%, from 1.25 Moz in 2013, to 1.21 Moz in 2014.
Knocking on the door is Canada’s Yamana Gold (TSX:YRI) which and increased its gold output by 18%, from 1 Moz in 2013, to 1.18 Moz in 2014.
Note: For corporate attributable gold production, figures used are from actual official data or companies’ expectations for the 2014 calendar year. Wherever possible, calculated gold ounces are quoted instead of gold equivalent ounces.
*An earlier version of this post omitted Sibanye’s standalone production last year. MINING.com regrets the error and welcomes the Johannesburg-based miner to the top rankings.
Image of Meadowbank mine by Jason Pineau
3 Comments
Art Easian
Where are the world leading Chinese mines?
Jorge A. Fuentes Zapata
Did you put this together Vladimir Basov? I’m putting a document together that I’ll publish (not for profit) in Spring 2016, and I would like to know if you crafted this chart in order to use the facts you stated for a small section of my document, the data you put together will be really helpful for that specific purpose, I will not be publishing the chart itself by the way as I respect intellectual property. I’d only like to be able to cite my sources properly, and knowing that you put it together would really help in putting the sources together, especially to know if others collaborated with you would be very helpful. Thank you.
Malik Umer Farooq
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