Australia now world’s #2 gold producer

China is the largest producer with South Africa, which was the world’s leading gold producer for about a century, now down to fourth place.
The past few years have seen a considerable shift in the ranking of the world’s largest gold producing countries, said Surbiton’s director Dr Sandra Close.
“In 2005, Australia was the world’s second largest gold producer behind South Africa but it was overtaken by the USA in 2006 and by China in 2007, putting it back to fourth place,” she said.
“But with the continued decline in South African output and lower production in the USA in the first half of 2009, Australia has regained the number two spot.”
Surbiton’s figures show that Australia produced 112 tonnes of gold in the first half of 2009. By comparison, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recorded Chinese production at 147 tonnes for the first half of 2009, while the USA produced 105 tonnes, according to the United States Geological Survey and South Africa’s output was reported as 103 tonnes by the Chamber of Mines of South Africa.
“Few people seem to realise just how important the gold industry is to Australia,” Dr Close said. “Currently, the value of our mine production of gold at around A$7.5 billion is equal to the value of Australia’s exports of wool, wine and dairy products combined.”
Dr Close said that Australia has regained its ranking as number two world gold producer prior to the increase in production expected from new mines in the next few quarters. Newmont Mining’s new Boddington operation alone will turn out more than 30 tonnes a year when in full production.
Boddington, located 120km south east of Perth, poured its first gold on September 30th. However, Newmont did not report any output for the quarter as commercial production was not declared until November 20th. Output will rise over the next several quarters as throughput increases.
“For some time, Telfer and the Super Pit have each produced around 160,000oz to 190,000oz a quarter,” Dr Close said. “However, both operations will be well and truly overtaken when Boddington reaches full production of around 250,000oz a quarter.”
Surbiton Associates reported that Australian gold output totalled 56 tonnes (1.8 million oz) in the September quarter 2009. This was a tonne less than in the previous quarter and about half a tonne less than in the September quarter in 2008.
“Production has been relatively stable for several quarters now,” Dr Close said. “It’s been a case of steady-as-she-goes.”
Operations with lower gold output in the September quarter included Newmont’s Tanami mine, down 19,000oz and the Super Pit, down 16,000oz. Increased output came from the East Kundana joint venture (Barrick/Tribune Resources/Rand Mining), up 19,000oz; Barrick’s Yilgarn South operations, up 13,000oz; and AngloGold’s Sunrise Dam mine, up 8,000oz.
“Most of Australia’s gold comes from mines which predominantly produce gold but some six to seven per cent comes from operations where gold is a by-product,” Dr Close said. “Recently we have seen a rise of some two-thirds of a tonne per quarter of by-product gold due to the contribution from Oz Minerals’ Prominent Hill operation.”
Although the US dollar gold price has risen to record levels, Australian gold producers have not received the full benefit of the rising price due to the exchange rate impact.
The top five producing operations for the September quarter 2009 were:
Telfer (Newcrest Mining Limited) - 162,929oz
Super Pit – JV (Newmont Mining Corp 50 per cent, Barrick Gold Corp 50 per cent) - 162,000oz
Jundee (Newmont Mining Corp) - 103,000oz
Sunrise Dam (Anglogold Ashanti Limited) - 102,111oz
Lefroy (Gold Fields Limited) - 100,278oz

New high grade gold mine in production by January 2010
Speaking at the Annual General Meeting of Ramelius Resources Limited, chairman Robert Kennedy, said the Wattle Dam gold mine near Kambalda in Western Australia was on target to proceed to full production in the New Year, after recently milling its first underground development ore.
“The underground development has progressed well and we are on track to enjoy the fruits of our labour through the extraction and milling of gold ore over the full first calendar year of underground mining,” Kennedy said.
On November 24th, Ramelius announced that it had begun milling the first parcel of underground ore from its flagship mine, 25 kilometres west of Kambalda, and would shortly begin earning a cash flow from sales of the new ore processed through its 100 per cent-owned Burbanks mill nearby at Coolgardie.
Over the past 12 months, Ramelius has completed the “cut back” to the original open pit mine, paving the way for full-scale underground mining at Wattle Dam, where recent exploration has unearthed “super grades” of up to 819 grams of gold per tonne.
“At the last Annual General Meeting, I reported that the initial open pit mine that commenced in March 2006 had produced some 34,500 ounces of gold, which was 2.5 times the original estimate,” Kennedy said.
“This year, I am pleased to report that the pit cut back at Wattle Dam has resulted in 158,038 tonnes of ore being mined, which produced 16,972 ounces of gold – or three times the quantity estimated to be extracted from this phase of the mine.
“Together with the open-pit phase, the total additional gold produced from Wattle Dam to date is 32,000 ounces, which is equivalent to an extra tonne of gold.”
The mine plan for the underground mine at Wattle Dam is based on production of 68,700 ounces of gold – although Kennedy said this target may well be exceeded.