Australian Gold Mining and Production
Gold Mining was probably one of the most important factors in the early population of Australia. The history of Australian gold mining is one of romance, greed, tragedy, great expectations and great rewards. Gold mining was considered to be a vital part of Australia's economy. Australia's gold reserves were a vital and respected segment of the Australian economy until 1997 when Peter Costello sold off two thirds of Australia's gold reserves and crashed our Australian gold mining industry.
Recently we have begun to see some "Green Shoots" with Australian gold mining beginning to recover and Australia creeping up through the world's top four producers.
The images below show world gold production by country in 2000, 2007 and 2008 (GFMS estimate)
- During 2007 China became the world's largest gold producer
- China’s gold production in 2008 increased 4.26% to 288 tonnes
- South Africa's gold production has been steadily declining since 1970
- China's gold production has been steadily increasing since the early 1980s.
Australia's gold production has been gently declining since 1997 and in 2008 Australia produced 25% less gold than in 1997. (more information)
http://www.goldsheetlinks.com/production.htm
Why is Australia's Gold production in decline?
Map Of Australian Gold Resources
An excellent map detailing Australia's gold deposits by size in tonnes of gold by Geoscience Commonwealth of Australia. www.ga.gov.au/image_cache/GA11446.pdf