The World Gold Council said that as many promising areas have already been explored, new gold mines around the world are increasingly difficult to find.
According to the SmartFinance APP, the World Gold Council (WGC) said that as gold reserves become harder to find, the gold mining industry is working to maintain production growth.
John Reade, chief market strategist at WGC, said: "We have seen a 4% year-on-year increase in mine production in the first quarter of 2024." "But from a broader perspective, I think mine production reached a steady level around 2016 and 2018, and we haven't seen any growth since then."
According to data from the International Trade Association, mining production in 2023 has only increased slightly by 0.5% year on year.
In 2022, global gold production increased by 1.35% year on year, compared to 2.7% in the previous year. In 2020, global gold production saw its first decline in 10 years, down 1%.
Reade said: "I think the most important thing is that since around 2008, the mining industry has experienced 10 years of rapid growth and is now trying to report continuous growth in production."
He explained that as many promising areas have already been explored, new gold mines around the world are increasingly difficult to find.
According to the World Gold Council, large-scale gold mining is capital-intensive and requires a lot of exploration and development, taking an average of 10 to 20 years to start production.
Even during the exploration process, the possibility of a discovery progressing to mine development is low, with only about 10% of gold discoveries worldwide containing enough metal to be mined.
So far, about 187,000 tons of gold have been mined, with most of it coming from China, South Africa, and Australia. The US Geological Survey estimates that the amount of gold reserves that can be mined is about 57,000 tons.
Reade added that in addition to the discovery process, government licenses are increasingly difficult to obtain and take longer to pass, making mining more difficult. Obtaining licenses and permits required for mining companies to start operations may take several years.
Reade said that in addition, many mining projects are planned in remote areas that require basic infrastructure such as roads, electricity and water, which increases the cost of building these mines and financing operations.
He said, "Finding gold, approving mining, financing and operating it is becoming more and more difficult."
Boosted by strong demand led by China, the price of gold has hit new highs in recent months, and is now taking a breather. The current trading price of spot gold is US$2,294.3 per ounce.