Gold mining and exploration companies

Kingsgate Consolidated Limited is an Australian gold mining and exploration company operating a modern gold mine and developing mineral resources in Thailand. Kingsgate Consolidated Limited (Kingsgate) is a highly successful gold mining and exploration company, traded on the Australian Stock Exchange (KCN: ASX). The company owns and operates the low cost Chatree gold mine in central Thailand through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Akara mining limited, using world's best practice for safe, environmental and socially responsible operations.

Gold mining exploration

Globally, world gold production exceeded 2478 metric tons, or 79.667 million troy ounces in 2004. As of 2006, the country producing the most gold was South Africa with 11.1%, followed by the USA (10.5%), Australia (10.2%), China (9.7%), Peru (8.2%), Indonesia (6.8%), Russia (6.2%), Canada (4.2%), Papau New Guinea (2.7%), and Ghana 63.1mt (2.6%).

The world's deepest gold mine is currently the Savuka mine on the north-west rim of the Witwatersrand Basin in South Africa. This operation mines to a depth of 3,777m. Savuka yielded 5.68g/t in the fourth quarter of 2002. The Grasberg mine in Indonesia is the world's largest gold producer, while Newmont's Yanacocha mine in Peru is the second largest in the world, 14,000 feet above sea level in the Andes. At the other end of the scale, there are a myriad of very small miners operating as one-man bands, panning for alluvial gold or working shallow outcrops in many parts of Africa, Latin America and Asia, and finding perhaps only a few ounces in any one year.

Information about gold

Gold has been known and highly-valued since prehistoric times. It may have been the first metal used by humans and was valued for ornamentation and rituals. Although the price of some metals can be much higher, gold has long been considered the most desirable of precious metals, and its value has been used as the standard for many currencies in history. Gold has been used as a symbol for purity, value, royalty, and particularly roles that combine these properties.
Gold in antiquity was relatively easy to obtain geologically; however, 75% of all gold ever produced has been extracted since 1910. Gold's great virtues of malleability, ductility, reflectivity, resistance to corrosion and unparalleled ability as a thermal and electrical conductor mean it is used in a wide variety of industrial applications consuming close to 300 tonnes annually. At the end of 2001, it is estimated that all the gold ever mined amounts to about 145,000 tons.

Several gold rushes took place throughout the 19th century in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United States. Gold rushes helped spur permanent non-indigenous settlement of new regions and define a significant part of the culture of the North American and Australian frontiers. As well, at a time when money was based on gold, the newly-mined gold provided economic stimulus far beyond the gold fields.