Where does newly mined gold come from?

Where does most of the world's gold come from?

The old answer, last year's answer, was South Africa. For years, the deep (some more than 2 miles beneath the surface) mines of this nation provided a lion's share of the world's newly mined yellow metal. And they're still significant.

But last year, electric power shortages cut back on South Africa's output and that nation was replaced in the No. 1 position by a quickly rising new producer: China.

Yes, China is rapidly becoming a major producer of many metals, though it also buys metals and ores from other nations. In gold, it has reached the pinnacle and has done so through many small mines rather than a handful of larger ones.

In second place is the United States, with most of its production coming from primary mines in Nevada. (Primary means that gold is the major product of the mine, rather than being a byproduct from a copper or silver mine.)

Nevada's current gold boom began in the 1960s and is still growing strong. Most gold from Nevada exists in the form of microscopic particles that can only be economic to mine because of the vast amounts of rock that can be moved using enormous equipment, including haulage trucks that can move 320 ton of rock or waste at a time.

Couldn't have been mined in 1800s

An interesting point about Nevada's current gold production is that it comes from ore that the '49ers, on their way to California in the middle of the 19th century, probably camped on, but didn't have the tools to know what they had.  Neither did they have the tools to mine the fine grains even had they known.

Most of the gold around the world is mined from deposits like this today. It's all stuff that couldn't have been profitable without modern technology and large-scale production methods.

The next big producer is South Africa, followed by Australia. In many ways, Australia is much like Nevada in terms of mining. Large open-pit mine provide most of the gold from desert regions that aren't used for much else.

Many nations today are looking at their gold resources in the group as a way of earning foreign exchange or employing local residents. And these resources, currently unknown, will satisfy the increasing world gold demand of decades to come.

Here's a report on how to buy gold for less than market price.