The world's Top 10 producing Gold Mines are compiled by annual production or by the size of proven and probable reserves. The ranking may also be more generally by their measured, indicated & inferred resources (which include reserves). You may find the listed companies by rank. However, the production level may change as per the company or economy. Below are the countries which are producing gold with Volume. Find the countires which dig deepest to dig out raw gold from the earth. Ranked is given in the format of # Rank.
# 10: OBUASI with 29,830,000 Oz Gold, Location: GHANA, Western Africa. Mining began at Obuasi more than 110 years ago, in 1897 when it was originally known as the Ashanti Mine. The underground operation extends to a depth of 1,500 meters or 4,900 feet (almost a mile).
# 9: CADIA EAST with 37,600,000 Oz Gold, Location: New South Wales, AUSTRALIA. In Cadia East, Gold was first discovered in the gold and copper bearing Cadia region in 1851 and Cadia East was discovered in 1994. Cadia East, owned by Australian major Newcrest. The other two mines are Cadia Hill and Ridgeway. Cadia Hill is a large open-pit mine nearing the end of its useful life just as the newly developed Cadia East recently began its expected 30 year mine life.
# 8: MPONENG with 39,557,000 Oz Gold, Location: Near Johannesburg, SOUTH AFRICA. It is being one of the largest, Mponeng is also one of the world's deepest underground mines. Mponeng is located appox. 65 km west of Johannesburg in one of the world's most prolific mining regions known as the Witwatersrand. It extends over 2 miles below the surface and it takes over an hour to reach the bottom.
# 7: PUEBLO VIEJO with 40,085,000 Oz Gold, Location: DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. The open pit mine is very new and began production in January 2013. It also has large silver and copper reserves to complement its gold deposit. As it ramps up to full production, it will also be one of the largest producers in the world,
It has majors Barrick (60%) and Goldcorp (40%). This large deposit is located in the Dominican Republic, roughly 100 km northwest of the capital of Santo Domingo.
# 6: OYU TOLGOI with 46,340,000 Oz Gold, Location: South Gobi Desert, MONGOLIA. It is also be one of the largest gold and copper producers on earth as it ramps up to full production. The newly developed mammoth deposit located in the remote southern reaches of Mongolia.The mine cost the princely sum of US$6.6B to develop and went into production in January 2013. In addition to its 46Moz+ of gold, it also contains over 40 billion pounds of copper worth US$140B.
# 5: OLYMPIADA with 47,500,000 Oz Gold, Location: Central Siberia, RUSSIA. Olympiada was discovered in 1970 and finally went into production in 1996 and despite its age it has plenty of resource life left. Russia is the 4th largest gold producer in the world, and as Russia's biggest producer, Olympiada was responsible for 9% of the total in 2012.
# 4: MURUNTAU with 50,000,000 Oz Gold, Location: Kyzyl Kum Desert, UZBEKISTAN. Muruntau is physically the largest open pit gold mine on earth, measuring 3.5km x 2.5km across (2.2mi x 1.6mi) at the surface. This facility is currently owned by the Uzbek government. Oyu Tolgoi and Olympiada, this mine is located on the remote fringes of the Asian steppe.
# 3: LIHIR with 64,100,000 Oz Gold, Location: Niolam (aka Lihir) Island, PAPUA NEW GUINEA.
It has began production in 1997 and is currently owned by Australian major Newcrest who acquired it in 2010 for a cool US$22B. the other remote mine, located on the small island of Lihir, over 900km (560mi) east of Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. The pit is actually in the caldera of an extinct volcano that is geothermically active. Retrofitting is currently underway to dramatically increase production, which will likely make it one of the largest gold producers as well.
# 2: SOUTH DEEP with 81,413,000 Oz Gold, Location: Near Johannesburg, SOUTH AFRICA. It is located in the Witwatersrand Basin, very near to 8th place Mponeng. The mine is in the early stages of ramping up to full production. Mining began at the site in 1961 and Gold Fields bought the operation in 2006. It is estimated that the mine will maintain this high rate of production until 2057 with mine life lasting until 2080.
# 1: GRASBERG with 106,231,000 Oz Gold, Location: Papua, INDONESIA. The site is located in the mountains at an altitude of 4,300 meters or 14,000 feet and is owned by Freeport McMoRan but includes a sizeable sharing agreement with miner Rio Tinto. The operations consist of both open pit and underground mines, and have been in operation since the 1980's and the pit forms an enormous mile wide crater.
