The gold mining industry is having a more difficult time finding gold to mine. There’s been little growth in production over the past few years.
RT:
The gold mining industry is struggling to maintain production growth as finding deposits of the yellow metal has become more difficult, according to the World Gold Council (WGC), cited by CNBC on Sunday.
Data from the trade association reportedly shows that mine production rose merely 0.5% in 2023 compared to a year ago.
In 2022, the growth was 1.35% in annual terms, whereas the year before it had risen 2.7%.
“We’ve seen record first quarter mine production in 2024, up 4% year-on-year,” WGC Chief Market Strategist John Reade told CNBC, adding: “But the bigger picture, I think about mine production is that, effectively, it plateaued around 2016, 2018 and we’ve seen no growth since then.”
According to Reade, it is becoming harder to find new gold deposits around the world since many prospective areas have already been explored.
He pointed out that large-scale gold mining is capital-intensive, and requires significant exploration and development. It takes an average of 10 to 20 years before a mine is ready for production, the market strategist said, adding that only about 10% of discoveries contain sufficient deposits to warrant mining.
This is another reason why I am bullish on gold. Considering the gold mining situation along with the horrible economic picture, gold represents an excellent insurance policy in this environment.
Gold won’t go to zero value regardless of what happens. It is why it is a core position of my personal economic portfolio which consists of gold, silver, Bitcoin, real estate and GameStop stock.
