China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology reported Saturday that China’s 2012 total gold production increased 11.66% or by 42.1 tonnes to a total 403.1 metric tonnes of which 341.8 tonnes came from gold mines while 61.3 tonnes were by-products of nonferrous metal smelting.
The top 10 Chinese gold producers were China National Gold Corporation, Zijin Mining Group Co., Shandong Gold Group Co., Shandong Zhaojin Group, Lingbao Gold Company, Eldorado Gold Company (China), the Yunnan Gold Mining Group, Hunan Gold Group Co., Shandong Mining Group Co., and Lingbao Jinyuan Mining Co.
The top ten gold group produced a total of 198.1 tonnes of gold in 2012, accounting for 49.14% of China’s national production, said the ministry.
The top five gold producing provinces last year included Shandong, Henan, Jiangxi, Yunnan and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. These five provinces accounted for 61.39% of China’s national gold production, the ministry noted.
China’s gold producers realized 380.79 billion yuan (US$60.57 billion) in industrial output value in 2012, up 33.91% from 2011. Their profits increased 4% to 35 billion yuan (US$5.6 billion, the ministry said.
While China is the world’s second largest gold consumer after India, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology suggested the impasse in U.S. fiscal cliff negotiations and a slowdown in the Chinese economy discouraged Chinese gold investors.
The World Gold Council put China’s consumer gold demand at 776.1 tonnes last year, virtually flat from the previous year’s consumer gold consumption.