Australia (especially Western Australia) is the one of the world's top producers of gold. About 60% of Australia's gold resources occur in Western Australia, with the remainder in all other States and the Northern Territory.
Australia is estimated to have the world's largest gold reserves, with 9,500 tonnes or 17 per cent of the total world estimated gold reserves of 57,000 tonnes. Geoscience Australia estimates that 60 per cent of Australia's gold reserves are in Western Australia.
In Australia this concentration of gold took place in the Earth hundreds of millions of years ago in the eastern states, and thousands of millions of years ago in Western Australia. As well as gold, the fluids can carry other dissolved minerals, such as quartz. This is why gold is often found with quartz.
Australia is one of the world's leading producers of bauxite (aluminium ore), iron ore, lithium, gold, lead, diamond, rare earth elements, uranium, and zinc. Australia also has large mineral sand deposits of ilmenite, zircon and rutile.
Currently the second-largest gold-producing country in the world, Australia is home to top producers and gold mines. Read on for a breakdown of the Australian gold market, as well as the largest gold mines that can be found throughout the area.
In 2021, China's mines produced an estimated 370 metric tons of gold. China is the largest gold producer in the world.
Unlike most wealthy countries, Australia's economy lacks both diversification and sophistication. Australia's primary exports are in low complexity categories such as mining and agriculture.
Australians are the wealthiest people in the world with a typical net worth of almost $US274,000 in 2021, just ahead of Belgium, New Zealand and Hong Kong.
The Australian economy has been blessed with huge deposits of natural resources, made even better by recent price increases in many commodities. Australia is the world's largest producer of iron ore, bauxite, and opal. It is the second largest producer of gold, manganese, and lead.
As part of Australia's official reserve assets, the Reserve Bank holds an amount of gold. Including gold that is on loan, the RBA's holdings amount to 80 tonnes, with the full value of these holdings recorded as an asset on the RBA's balance sheet. The RBA's position in gold has not changed since 1997.
Australia has plentiful supplies of natural resources, including the second largest accessible reserves of iron ore in the world, the fifth largest reserves of coal and significant gas resources.
About 244,000 metric tons of gold has been discovered to date (187,000 metric tons historically produced plus current underground reserves of 57,000 metric tons). Most of that gold has come from just three countries: China, Australia, and South Africa.
The United States holds the largest stockpile of gold reserves in the world by a considerable margin at over 8,100 tons. The U.S. government has almost as many reserves as the next three largest gold-holding countries combined (Germany, Italy, and France).
Australia has been a diamond producer since the nineteenth century. The largest diamond found so far in Australia was mined at the Merlin Mine, Northern Territory, in 2003 and weighed 104.73 carats.
The GFP index denotes Australia as a Top 20 world power. For 2023, Australia is ranked 16 of 145 out of the countries considered for the annual GFP review. The nation holds a PwrIndx* score of 0.2567 (a score of 0.0000 is considered 'perfect').
Australia is an important exporter of agricultural goods like wool, wheat, beef, fruit, and wine. The country is also rich in minerals and metals and is the world's fourth largest producer of gold.
On a mean wealth basis, Australia was the fourth-richest country in 2021 behind Switzerland, the US and Hong Kong. The average Australian adult was worth $US550,110 at the end of last year, after enjoying a $US66,350 annual increase in wealth.
It's one of the fastest moving plates if you look at it horizontally. It moves at around seven centimetres per year, she said. “But vertically there is a problem. Historical data suggests that it should be uplifting by about a millimetre per year, but the data that we've got suggests it's sinking.
Demand for Australian gold was largely dominated by India and the United Kingdom in 2010, accounting for 36.8 per cent and 35.9 per cent of total gold exports respectively. India is a fast-growing market for Australian gold, as the country's increasing wealth means more Indians can afford gold jewellery.
Though new gold veins are still being found, discoveries of large deposits are becoming increasingly rare. As a result, most gold production today is coming from older mines that have already been exploited for decades.