With the Old Town mine operated by Barrick, the Dominican Republic ranks 5th in the world in a list of gold mines with the most production. This follows from data compiled from S&P Global Market Intelligence and company reports to map the top 10 gold producing mines in 2021.
The 10 largest gold mines are located in nine different countries in North America, Oceania, Africa and Asia. Together they represent about 13 million ounces or 12% of global gold production in 2021.
| Ranking | Mine | Location | Production (ounces) | % of global production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Nevada Gold Mines |  USA |
3,311,000 | 2.9% |
| #two | Muruntau |  Uzbekistan |
2,990,020 | 2.6% |
| #3 | Grasberg |  Indonesia |
1,370,000 | 1.2% |
| #4 | Olympiad |  Russia |
1,184,068 | 1.0% |
| #5 | Old Town |  Dominican Republic |
814,000 | 0.7% |
| #6 | Kibali |  congo |
812,000 | 0.7% |
| #7 | cadian |  Australia |
764,895 | 0.7% |
| #8 | Lihir |  Papua New Guinea |
737,082 | 0.6% |
| #9 | canadian malartic |  Canada |
714,784 | 0.6% |
| #10 | Boddington | Australia |
696,000 | 0.6% |
| N/A | Total | N/A | 13,393,849 | 11.7% |
World Gold Council.
a golden alliance
In 2019, the world’s two largest gold miners, Barrick Gold and Newmont Corporation, announced a landmark joint venture combining their operations in Nevada, USA. The resulting joint venture, Nevada Gold Mines, is now the world’s largest gold mining complex with six mines producing more than 3.3 million ounces year.
Uzbekistan’s state-owned Muruntau mine, one of the world’s deepest open pit operations, produced just under 3 million ounces, making it the second largest gold mine. Muruntau represents more than 80% of the total gold production of Uzbekistan.
Only two other mines, Grasberg and Olimpiada, produced more than 1 million ounces of gold in 2021. Grasberg is not only the third largest gold mine, but also one of the largest copper mines in the world. Olympiada, owned by the Russian gold mining giant Polyus, has around 26 million ounces of gold reserves.
Polyus was also recently crowned the largest miner in terms of gold reserves worldwide, with more than 104 million ounces of proven and probable gold across all deposits.
How profitable is a gold mine?
The price of gold has risen about 50% since 2016. And it is now hovering around the all-time high of $2,000 an ounce.
That’s good news for gold miners, who made profit margins record in 2020. For every ounce of gold produced in 2020, gold miners pocketed an average of $828. A significantly higher average than the previous high of $666/oz set in 2011.
With inflation rates hitting a decade high in several countries, gold mining could be a sector to watch. Especially given gold’s status as a traditional hedge against inflation.
