australian gold production has risen

Australian gold production has risen to its highest level in ten years.

A mining consultancy firm says production is up seven per cent on 2012, with 273 tonnes of gold produced last year.

Surbiton and Associates' Jim Pollock says miners have targeted higher grade ore due to the lower gold price.

"When the price goes up companies can treat lower grade ore and still make a reasonable profit, but when the prices go down the reverse is the same and companies have to actually mine higher grade ore to maintain the same profits," he said.

"Therefore the amount of gold they produce goes up and their cash costs go down."
Australian gold production hits ten year high

Mr Pollock says there has been a tremendous amount of activity in the sector.

"More activity than we've seen for some time and I think following the period of subdued gold prices some of the overseas companies have decided to pull their horns in a little bit, sell their Australian operations, and look for better prospects elsewhere," he said.

"So we had Barrick selling down a lot of its operations, some of those were taken up by other overseas companies, some were taken up by Australian companies.

"There's been quite a bit of movement on the mergers and acquisitions front as it were.

"WA has been the mainstay for Australia gold production, it still produces about 70-75 per cent of all of Australia's gold."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-03/gold-production-hits-ten-year-high/5295622?section=wa