Australia gold output falls as miners tap stockpilesFrédéric Tomesco - The Northern Miner https://www.mining.com/australia-gold-output-falls-as-miners-tap-stockpiles/
Gold mine output in Australia fell 7% quarter-over-quarter as more miners used lower-grade stockpiled material to blend into their mill feed, a new report says.Australia, the world’s largest gold producer after China, produced 73 tonnes of the yellow metal in the first three months of 2025 compared with 79 in the previous quarter, Melbourne-based mining consultants Surbiton Associates said in a statement dated Sunday.
Production in the first quarter of 2024 was 70 tonnes.The rising price of gold, which hit a historic high of $3,500 per oz. in April, is making previously unprofitable lower-grade ore economic, pushing miners to use more lower-quality material into their feed. Reclaimed stockpiled material now represents about 15% of the total ore being treated in Australia, up from about 1% a year ago, Surbiton says.
“Effectively the recent decline in Australian gold production was largely the result of higher gold prices,” Sandra Close, a director of Surbiton Associates, said in the statement.
Higher gold prices “mean that it is economic to reclaim more low-grade material from stockpiles to feed into the treatment plants, so the weighted average head grade of ore being treated declines,” Close added. “Although lower head grades result in less gold being produced and means cash costs and all-in sustaining costs per ounce increase, the value of each ounce of gold is higher.”38% price riseLondon Bullion Market Association gold prices averaged $2,859.60 an oz. in the first quarter of 2025, a 7.4% rise over 2024’s final quarter, World Gold Council data show. Compared with a year ago, first-quarter prices jumped 38%.
While higher gold prices could be expected to boost output by encouraging the startup of new projects and the re-commissioning of past-producing mines, many existing treatment plants are running close to their limit, Close said. This has caused a shortage of immediate treatment capacity for emerging small miners that want to sell parcels of ore or to have their ore toll-treated.Mixed bag for outputEven so, “many gold producers are experiencing high margins and are doing very well,” Close said.
AngloGold Ashanti’s (NYSE: AU) and Regis Resources’ (ASX: RRL) Tropicana mine, Gold Fields’ (NYSE, JSE: GFI) St Ives and Newmont’s (TSX: NGT; NYSE: NEM) Tanami were among the Australian operations that saw production drop during the first quarter. Tropicana produced 57,000 fewer ounces, while output at Tanami fell by 46,000 oz. and that of St Ives fell by 40,500 ounces.Among the operations that produced more gold were Newmont’s Cadia mine, up 25,000 oz.; Bellevue Gold Mines’ (ASX: BGL) Bellevue, up 22,000 oz.; and Agnico Eagle Mines’ (TSX: AEM; NYSE: AEM) Fosterville property, up 7,000 ounces.
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