China Gold Mines Produced 450 Tons of Gold in 2015

Chinese Gold Mines Produced in 2015, a combined little more than 450 tonnes of gold, the China Gold Association announced earlier this week. It was just 0.4% less than a year earlier, when production rose to an all-time high. Of the total production, about 379.4 tonnes came from primary gold mines, while the remaining 70.63 tonnes were brought to the surface as a by-product from other mines.

In recent decades, China has dramatically scaled up its gold mining production. Compared to ten years ago, annual production has doubled, while in forty years it has even increased by a factor of thirty.

Chinese gold market

The gold mine production is necessary to satisfy the huge demand for the yellow metal. According to the China Gold Association In 2015, the Chinese population bought almost 986 tonnes of gold, an increase of 34.81 tonnes from a year earlier. Most of the gold was destined for the production of jewellery last year, namely 721.58 tonnes. In addition, 173 tonnes of Gold bars and 22.8 tonnes of Gold Coins sold on the Chinese gold market. The industry accounted for 68.44 tonnes of gold last year.

From 1949 to 2003, the private possession of gold was banned in China, a remnant of communist regimes of the past. Since then, the GOC has been pursuing a very proactive policy towards Buy gold, for example, in recent years the population has even been encouraged to purchase physical precious metals. The China Gold Association writes that gold is seen by the Chinese as the cornerstone of the global monetary system and that the precious metal plays an indispensable role in maintaining financial stability in times of crisis.

Buying gold

The Chinese people are concerned about the depreciation of their own currency and about the status of the US dollar. Therefore, a lot of gold is bought in China at both public and private level, and Chinese people invest in the development of the domestic gold mining sector. The biggest names in mining are China Gold, Zijin Mining, Shandong Gold and Shandong Zhaojin, these four companies account for half of China's total gold mining production.

China is the world's largest gold producer for the ninth year in a row, producing 450 tonnes in 2015, followed by Australia (270 tonnes), Russia (245 tonnes), the United States (211 tonnes) and Canada (160 tonnes).

Chinese gold mine production since 1949 (Source: Bullionstar)