Famous Gold Producing Countries

Gold is a chemical element, and in chemical terminology its meaning is “shining dawn”. It is a precious metal, used mostly for jewellery. Gold is of bright yellow or metallic yellow colour and is considered to be a symbol of wealth to some extent. Gold is used not only for jewellery making, but it is also used in the field of dentistry, photography, colouring and electronics and is currently used for cancer treatments as well. Gold has silver traces and sometimes may have copper and iron traces when it is discovered in its natural form. A small gold piece is of usually 70% to 95% gold and the remaining part is silver. Gold is among the heaviest minerals. The purity of gold is measured in Karat. The karat is a measurement on which the gold is determined to other metals on a scale of 1 to 24, in which 24 karats means the purest gold.

According to a geological survey, there are 72 countries that are producing gold. China is the leading gold producing country in the world. After that, South Africa, and then comes Australia and then United States, Peru, and then is Russia, Canada and a big list of almost 72 countries that are famous for gold producing.

Basically, China and South Africa are the top two leading gold producers but the collectors can rarely see a gold specimen from these countries due to restricted nature in their mining operations.

Australia is another large gold producer in the world. In Australia, gold is mostly found in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, Victoria. The Pacific Island of Fiji is well-known for gold production in Emperor Mine.

In Europe gold producing countries are Rosia Montana, Transylvania, Roman, Sweden, Brusson, Val D-Aosta, Italy and England. Itaituba and Para are the two well-known places of South America, who are in the top list of gold producing countries. Brazil, the Bolivar province and Venezuela are also gold producing countries.

In Canada, gold producing states are Timmons Area, Ontario, the Red Lake Gold District, the Dawson Mining District, Yukan Territory.

In the United States, the gold producing states are California, Alaska, Colorado and Nevada. In the United States, out of all the states, Nevada is the top gold producing state. Alaska has many deposits in the rivers, and the famous ones are Kenai Peninsula District, the Valdez Creek District, the Hatcher Pass District and the Peterville District. The state of Alaska has preserved many historical places deposits for public recreational mining.

The total gold production of China has steadily increased from 7.4% per annum to 66.9% since 1999. According to a survey in 2007, China became the top gold producing country by over taking South Africa, which was at the top position for over 100 years. According to a certain estimate in 2009 the total gold production by China is near 300 tonnes. China reserves the gold which is 78% of the total foreign reserves. United states hold 8,133 tonnes, which is 78.3% of its foreign reserves. China has increased its gold reserves rapidly, and by 2050, China will overtake the United States as the biggest economy in the world.

Source by Jack Wogan

Famous Gold Producing Countries