Canada ranks fifth in output

A ranking of the top 10 gold-producing countries in 1993 places Canada in fifth place, unchanged from the previous year.

Total Canadian output dropped to 150.9 tonnes gold last year from 160.4 tonnes in 1992, according to Gold 1994, a report by Gold Fields Minerals Services of London

The top producing nation continues to be South Africa. But in a changing global market, that country’s output now represents just under 33% of world production. (Twenty years ago, South Africa accounted for more than 75% of Western gold production.)

South African production in 1993 totaled 619.5 tonnes, up slightly from 1992. In second place was the U.S. (336 tonnes), followed by Australia (247.2 tonnes) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (244 tonnes). The bottom five producers were China (127 tonnes), Brazil (75.7 tonnes), Papua New Guinea (61.8 tonnes), Indonesia (46.3 tonnes) and Ghana (41.4 tonnes).

“For the past six years, the mining industry has become accustomed to having to contain costs in order to stay profitable in light of declining gold prices,” according to the report. “The rise in price in 1993 thus brought considerable and long-awaited relief to industry participants, with margins much improved through a further reduction in average cash costs, which fell 5% to US$233 per oz.”

In a list of weighted average production costs, Canadian gold production in 1993 had a cash cost of US$222 (down from US$226 in 1992) and a total cost of US$282 (up from US$281 in 1992).

The South African cash cost dropped $24 to US$262 in 1993, while the total cost was down $27 to US$297.

For more information about the report, write Gold Fields Mineral Services, Greencoat House, Francis Street, London, England SW1P 1DH.