Ťažba zlata sa znižuje

Ťažba zlata v globále klesá v priemere asi 1 mil. uncí ročne - z 85 mil. uncí/rok v 2001 na 75 mil. uncí v súčasnosti. Bane sú takmer vyčerpané a nové náleziská sa nachádzajú pomaly.

Gold production will continue to fall, despite a brief boost in 2009 and soaring prices, as deposits are exhausted and new discoveries remain elusive, say miners.

Overall, "It's a fact that gold production from mines has been in decline since 2001 and has gone roughly from 85 million ounces to about 75 million ounces a year," said Vincent Borg, spokesman for No. 1 producer Barrick Gold. "It sort of goes down about 1 million ounces every year and our forecast is that it will continue to decline despite the higher price" for gold nowadays, he said.

Almost everywhere, mineral deposits are being exhausted and new deposits are not being found fast enough to replace them, these experts explain.

South Africa, which was once at the vanguard of world production, saw a 9.3-percent drop in production year over year in the second quarter, according to its Chamber of Mines.

Globally, "it's just that the assets are not there anymore," Tonya Todd, a spokeswoman for Goldcorp, Canada's second biggest gold mining firm.

Článok:www.gata.org/node/8086

25.11.2009