Gold production will continue to fall, despite a brief boost this year and soaring prices, as deposits are exhausted and new discoveries remain elusive, miners said.
In terms of production, “2009 is the outlier as far as the trend,” said Omar Jabara, spokesman for US-based Newmont Mining, the second-largest gold producer in the world.
Overall, “it’s a fact that gold production from mines has been in decline since 2001 and has gone roughly from 85 million ounces to about 75 million ounces a year,” said Vincent Borg, spokesman for No. 1 producer Barrick Gold.
PHOTO: REUTERS
“It sort of goes down about 1 million ounces every year and our forecast is that it will continue to decline despite the higher price” for gold nowadays, he said.
Almost everywhere, mineral deposits are being exhausted and new deposits are not being found fast enough to replace them.
South Africa, which was once at the vanguard of world production, saw a 9.3 percent drop in production year-on-year in the second quarter, according to its Chamber of Mines.
Globally, “it’s just that the assets are not there anymore,” said Tonya Todd, a spokeswoman for Goldcorp, Canada’s second-biggest gold mining firm.
“Just because gold reached a new high today doesn’t mean we can send a message to our 26 mines saying produce as much gold as you can today, because they are all ready,” Borg said. “It’s not like a water tap you can turn on and it comes right away.”
Barrick and Newmont expect nevertheless to continue increasing production next year by 7 percent and 5 percent to 10 percent, respectively. But in the long term, it’s downhill.
What is already happening and is likely to continue is that the grade or quality of deposits industry-wide will be “on average lower than deposits discovered in the past,” Jabara said.
Global gold-mine production is forecast to rise by 3.7 percent this year to about 2,500 tonnes, but will satisfy only two-thirds of demand, which soared this year amid the global financial crisis to 3,800 tonnes, the World Gold Council said.
Historically, gold recycling or the sale of central bank stockpiles made up for supply shortages. But during the latest financial crisis, banks have been buying up gold in large quantities to protect monetary reserves against weakness in the US dollar.
Since the start of this month, for example, India’s central bank has scooped up 200 tonnes of gold from the IMF at market value for about US$6.7 billion.
Amid uncertainty in the stock market, small investors and hedge funds are also coveting gold, driving up demand for the precious metal.
The price of gold, after reaching new highs over the past year, hit US$1,174 per ounce on Monday.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)