Gold mining is a global business, with hundreds of mining companies digging for the precious metal in dozens of countries.
But where exactly are the largest gold mines in the world?
The above infographic uses data compiled from S&P Global Market Intelligence and company reports to map the top 10 gold-producing mines in 2021.
Editor’s Note: The article uses publicly available global production data from the World Gold Council to calculate the production share of each mine. The percentages slightly differ from those calculated by S&P.
The 10 largest gold mines are located across nine different countries in North America, Oceania, Africa, and Asia.
Together, they accounted for around 13 million ounces or 12% of global gold production in 2021.
Share of global gold production is based on 3,561 tonnes (114.5 million troy ounces) of 2021 production as per the World Gold Council.
In 2019, the world’s two largest gold miners—Barrick Gold and Newmont Corporation—announced a historic joint venture combining their operations in Nevada. The resulting joint corporation, Nevada Gold Mines, is now the world’s largest gold mining complex with six mines churning out over 3.3 million ounces annually.
Uzbekistan’s state-owned Muruntau mine, one of the world’s deepest open-pit operations, produced just under 3 million ounces, making it the second-largest gold mine. Muruntau represents over 80% of Uzbekistan’s overall gold production.
Related Article: The world’s top 10 gold mining companies
Only two other mines—Grasberg and Olimpiada—produced more than 1 million ounces of gold in 2021. Grasberg is not only the third-largest gold mine but also one of the largest copper mines in the world. Olimpiada, owned by Russian gold mining giant Polyus, holds around 26 million ounces of gold reserves.
Polyus was also recently crowned the biggest miner in terms of gold reserves globally, holding over 104 million ounces of proven and probable gold between all deposits.
The price of gold is up by around 50% since 2016, and it’s hovering near the all-time high of $2,000/oz.
That’s good news for gold miners, who achieved record-high profit margins in 2020. For every ounce of gold produced in 2020, gold miners pocketed $828 on average, significantly higher than the previous high of $666/oz set in 2011.
With inflation rates hitting decade-highs in several countries, gold mining could be a sector to watch, especially given gold’s status as a traditional inflation hedge.
(This article first appeared in the Visual Capitalist Elements)
7 Comments
sunmines
Time to look at the silver/gold fields of NE Oregon again. 2200 oz/ton silver isn’t bad at today’s prices.
Lawrence Calebu Mafuru
Congo is still good production in africa
Barry Hanmer
I worked as a gold miner in the 1960, in North western Canada, at first it was frightening, but I soon got used to going 1500 feet underground.
Barry Hanmer
I worked as a gold miner in the 1960, in North western Canada, at first it was frightening, but I soon got used to going 1500 feet underground. Gold prices in them days were under 60 dollars an ounce.
Musa
Freeport owners is Freeport and Indonesian Government
Stavros kodogianis
Olympiada mine is located in northern Greece , not in Russia, as mentioned wrongly.It is owned by Canada’s Eldorado Gold.
Amanda Stutt
Hi Stavros, Polyus owns Olympiada in Russia: https://polyus.com/en/operations/operating_mines/olimpiada/
Eldorado owns Olympias in Greece: https://www.eldoradogold.com/assets/operations-and-projects/europe/operations/olympias-greece/default.aspx
Cheers,
Amanda