Gold Producing Nations
There are many countries that produce gold. This is not surprising because gold is both valuable and useful. The top gold producing nations include China, South Africa, Australia, USA, and Peru.
China: In 2007, China was able to produce 276 metric tons of gold mainly from the regions of Lioaning, Shandong, Fujian, and Henan. An increase in production of gold in Yunnan and Guizhou has already been seen in the recent years. Explorations for Nevada gold have already been used on China.
South Africa: South Africa used to be in the lead until 2007 when China increased its production by 12%. South Africa constitutes 40% of the global reserve of gold, which is at 40,000 tons, mostly located at the Archaean Witwatersrand Basin. This part has already been mined for over 100 years.
Australia: Australia is one of the gold producing nations that have gold mines everywhere, but Western Australia holds the record as the largest producing state. In Western Australia alone, 155 tons of gold had already been mined in 2007. That is equivalent to two thirds of the country’s overall gold production output.
USA: USA has most of its gold mines concentrated in Nevada, Utah, Alaska, and Colorado. Due to the abundance of gold and silver in Alaska, many immigrants have chosen this as their new home. Explorations are being done on Arizona, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Washington, South Dakota, and California to increase the production of gold in the USA. Almost 82% of the total mining output in 2006 was from Nevada mines. Open pit mining and cyanide heap leaching are used in this area.
Peru: A large concentration of polymetallic mines are in Peru. A total of 187 tons of gold had been collected in 2006 from various mines. Another 15.8 tons from artisan miners is also added to the total production. Placer gold is localized to the Inca and Mariategui Regions.
