Largest gold mining companies ranked by reserves – report

Editor’s Note: With so much market volatility, stay on top of daily news! Get caught up in minutes with our speedy summary of today’s must-read news and expert opinions. Sign up here!

(Kitco News) – Newmont boasts the largest gold reserves base across the industry with stunning 53.2% growth year-over-year.

Kitco ranked gold mining companies based on their most recent reported attributable proven & probable reserves in-situ.

With 100.2 Moz reported in 2019, Newmont has the largest gold reserve base across the industry. In 2019, Newmont added stunning 50 million ounces of gold reserves – a 53.2% growth over 2018 numbers – through the acquisition of Goldcorp, formation of the Nevada Gold Mines joint venture and the continuation of its exploration program. Current Newmont’s reserve and resource base can support stable production of more than 6 million ounces per annum for decades to come.

Barrick is second with 71 Moz of gold reserves reported in 2019. Barrick’s attributable gold mineral reserve increased by approximately 15% after depletion from mining, reflecting the incorporation of Randgold Resources, the formation of the Nevada Gold Mines joint venture with Newmont, disposal of Kalgoorlie mine and exploration success.

The world’s third largest Polyus’ ore reserves are estimated at 61 million ounces of gold, down 4.7% from 64 million ounces as at 31 December 2018. The changes in the estimates from 2018 to 2019 are due to depletion by mining and changes to stockpile inventories due to additions from mining and reclaim for processing.

Newcrest is fourth with 52 Moz of gold reserves reported in 2019. Reserves were down by 3.7% due to estimated mining depletion of approximately 3 million ounces of gold, offset by minor additions at operating sites.

Gold Fields is fifth with 49.3 Moz of gold in reserves. A 2.5% net increase in reserves was driven primarily by Asanko’s first time reporting, with strong contributions from extensions to existing mines and new mining positions at Agnew, St Ives and Tarkwa.

AngloGold Ashanti’s ore reserve decreased from 44.1 Moz in December 2018 to 43.9 Moz in December 2019. This gross annual decrease of 0.2 Moz includes depletion of 3.7 Moz. The increase before depletion of 3.5 Moz, resulted from additions of 3.6 Moz due to exploration and modelling changes, changes in economic assumptions of 0.4 Moz and a change in ownership of 0.1 Moz. Other factors resulted in a 0.6 Moz reduction.

Kinross’ total estimated proven and probable gold reserves at year-end 2019 were approximately 24.3 million ounces. The decrease of 1.2 million ounces in estimated gold reserves compared to year-end 2018 was mainly a result of production depletion, partially offset by additions at Paracatu, Kupol and Chirano.

Harmony Gold’s total attributable gold mineral reserves amounted to 23.72 Moz of gold, a 0.3% decrease on the 23.8 Moz reported a year before. Gold reserve ounces at Harmony’s South African operations accounted for 47% while the Papua New Guinea gold ounces represented 53% of Harmony’s total mineral reserves as at 30 June 2019.

In 2019, Polymetal’s ore reserves increased by 6.3% year-on-year to 23.7 Moz of gold due to successful exploration results with the subsequent re-evaluation of ore reserves at Kyzyl, Veduga, Kutyn and an initial estimate at Primorskoye (Dukat hub).

Agnico Eagle’s proven and probable gold reserves totaled 21.6 million ounces at December 31, 2019, a 2.1% decrease compared with 22.0 million ounces at December 31, 2018 while the gold reserve grade increased by 4.8%.

Top 10 gold mining companies ranked by proven & probable reserves.