A Journey Through Time in the World's Largest Gold Mines: Gold Prices Continue to Soar to Record Highs

One of the World's Gold Mines

A Journey Through Time in the World's Largest Gold Mines: A Legacy of Continuous Production

Due to geopolitical tensions, economic uncertainty, and the continued purchase of gold by central banks, the price of gold has reached record highs, rising by nearly 60% this year and surpassing the $4,000 per ounce mark last October. The current level of demand for gold raises questions about whether reserves of this commodity are running low and whether humanity has reached "peak gold."

In fact, some analysts believe that global mining production has already peaked or is approaching it, having stabilized between 3,000 and 3,300 metric tons annually over the past decade. While new gold deposits are still being discovered, such as in China's Hunan province (Wangwu Gold Field), large reserves are gradually decreasing, as most production still takes place in older mines that have been in operation for decades.

Data from company reports published on Mining.com indicates that gold mines in Nevada, USA, produced 2.70 million ounces (76.5 metric tons) of the precious metal in 2024, a figure comparable to the estimated production of the Muruntau gold deposit (2.68 million ounces that year), which has been exploited since the late 1960s in Uzbekistan.

The Grasberg gold mine, discovered in the 1980s in Indonesia’s West Papua province, is the world’s third-largest producer (1.86 million ounces or 59 tons in 2024), followed by the Olympiada deposit (1.44 million ounces or 40 tons), discovered in 1975 in the Severo-Yenisky region of Russia.