Here is an interesting article out this morning.Global Gold...

Here is an interesting article out this morning.

Global Gold reserves keep falling

Golds reserves across nearly 400 global projects fell by 10% over the last five years, according to consultancy Metals Focus (reports MiningNews).

Reserves fell from 26,989 tonnes in 2016 to 24,238t by the end of 2020."This highlights that depletion from mining has outpaced reserve replacement from resource upgrades over the past five years despite the gold price reaching a record high in 2020," Metals Focus said. "This trend contrasts with production from these mines, which increased by 3% over the same period, despite the significant impact on production last year from COVID-19."Resources also fell by 2% to 30,367t. Metals Focus said reserves would support production at current levels for about 11 years, while current resources would support output for an additional 14 years on successful conversion to reserves. Reserves fell across all regions, with Africa recording the biggest drop of 933t over the past five years, driven by falling grades and rising costs in South Africa. Reserve grades have weakened by 14% since 2016 which, combined with mine workings progressing to deeper levels, has pushed average all-in sustaining costs up by 35%. Gold reserves in Central and South America fell by 922t over the past five years, due to drops of more than 500t each in Argentina and Peru.

The 572t drop in Argentina was mainly due to downgrading of reserves into resources at Barrick Gold's mothballed Pascua-Lama project. Meanwhile in Peru, the reserve downgrade at Newmont's majority-owned Conga project and the exhaustion of reserves at Lagunas Norte, which Barrick sold to Baroo earlier this year, were the primary drivers behind the country's drop. The drops were offset by rises in other countries, including Buritica in Colombia and Aurora in Guyana, both of which were acquired by Zijin Mining in 2020.