Turkey's gold mining sector production reaches record in 2020

Turkey's gold mining sector last year saw a record amount of 42 tons of gold Mined. This is according to new figures from the Turkish Ministry of Energy and Raw Materials. Over the past five years, the country's gold mining sector has already mined more than 154 tonnes of gold, but that number is set to increase in the future. For example, the government wants to continue gold production over the next five years expand up to one hundred tons per year.

Turkey began active gold mining in 2001. Since then, the country has mined 384 tonnes of gold, much of it for the domestic market. Turks buy a lot of gold jewelry and investment gold to protect their assets from inflation. In recent years, the demand for the precious metal has increased even further, as the central bank also buys gold.

Turkey further increases gold mine production

Turkey ramps up gold mining

By further increasing gold production, the country will have to import less precious metal. This not only saves scarce currency reserves, it also puts less downward pressure on the exchange rate of the Turkish lira. And that is beneficial for President Erdogan, who recently called for gold to sell.

According to Minister Fatih Donmez, the country's gold mining sector can provide half of the precious metal's total imports. That would mean the country could save $12.5 billion on imports. The country can use that money to create additional employment in the gold mining sector, which currently employs more than 13,000 people.

Turkey currently has 18 active gold mines, but 20 more are planned. According to estimates by the Turkish Gold Miners Association (AMD), there are about 6,500 tons of gold in the soil. That means the country can extract a lot more gold in the coming years to meet domestic demand.

This contribution was made from Geotrendlines