(Kitco News) - According to preliminary data released by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), global recoverable mine gold reserves amounted to about 52,000 metric tonnes in 2022, which is 3.7% less than 54,000 tonnes reported in 2021.
USGS defines recoverable mine reserves (not to be confused with resources) as the part of the reserve base that could be economically extracted or produced at the time of determination.
Australia boasts the world's largest endowment of mine gold reserves (8,400 tonnes), followed by Russia (6,800 tonnes), South Africa (5,000 tonnes) and the United States (3,000 tonnes).
Largest countries by mine gold reserves in 2022, tonnes. Source: USGS.
As Kitco reported previously, China is the top mine gold producer with ~330 tonnes of the yellow metal mined in 2022.
At the same time, China is facing a rapid depletion of its current estimated domestic mine gold reserves.
Reserves-to-production (R/P) ratio that represents the "burn rate" of recoverable reserves (see USGS definition above) of mineral commodities when applying current levels of domestic mine production shows that China is in the "red zone" for future supplies of the yellow metal.
Gold R/P ("burn rate") ratio, years.
Mine gold reserves-to-production (R/P) ratio, years. Sources: USGS, Kitco.
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