Gold Mining Industry

Gold mining is the extraction of gold through conventional hard-rock mining or placer mining, made comparatively straightforward because gold is a soft metal that separates relatively easily from the material around it. World gold output totaled 3,612 tonnes in 2022, led by China at 380 tonnes, Russia at 310 tonnes, and Australia at 290 tonnes, with global annual production generally running in a range of about 4,000 to 5,000 metric tonnes including recycled sources. The industry is dominated by large multinational companies, chiefly Newmont and Barrick Gold, which together account for roughly 80 percent of global gold supply, alongside an estimated 10 to 15 million artisanal miners working worldwide. Its modern scale traces back to the nineteenth century gold rushes in California, Australia, South Africa, and the Klondike, and today's operations use hard rock mining, open pit extraction, and chemical processing methods far removed from those early placer techniques.