The Giants of the Gold Industry

The truth be told, there are actually very few companies that deal with the extractive industry ‘where it matters’ and due to this when it come to ranking corporations involved in mining it can get more than just a little confusing based on the fact that not only are there various methods through which these companies are ranked, but also due to the complex network of mergers, affiliations and joint ventures that these companies engage in that even the top management executives of most of these companies are bewildered of what belongs where and who owns what.

Therefore this article will just look at the business giants of the gold extraction industry from a superficial perspective that will be based on their annual production that will basically gauge the total cash for gold per gold ounce, as many of these mining firms have different costs for every ounce that is extracted and off course those that have a lesser cost per ounce ratio stand to make much higher margins as gold prices are standard everywhere and thus the only factors that matter is how much gold is being mined and at what cost in order to determine the mining champion of the world – so to speak.

Another method through which these companies are ranked is via taking into account their market capitalisations which revolves around estimating the total value of the of capital holdings in the mining operations attributed to the company and for now the largest gold mining companies include Goldcorp and Barrick Gold both based in Canada that have a combined annual production that exceeds 280 tons followed closely by Newmont Mining which is American with an annual production of gold hovering at approximately 140 tons.

After these giants at 4th place is Russian known as Polyus Gold that churns about 50 tons each year followed by the Australian Newcrest Mining at 5th place and again at 6th and 7th place by Canadian companies Yamana Gold and Kinross gold.

At the 8th and 9th place are 2 South African companies known as Anglo Gold Ashanti and Gold Fields and at the 10th spot we have yet again another Canadian mining company named El Dorado Gold that has an annual production volume of approximately 21 tons.

These estimations are based on averages that can change drastically based on the fact that when it comes to the extractive industry, lady luck play a big role. It is evident from this that Canada dominates the industry but despite this, their gold reserves are way behind reserves that America is claiming to have (as no audit has been done for decades and nobody has seen the reserves that America insists it has), South Africa, Russia and Australia.

Canadian mining companies are somewhat the preferred mining companies that most nations rely on to extract their gold resources due to their good reputation, fair practices and reinvestment into infrastructure of host nations.

The mining companies from Canada are often awarded contracts to mine precious metals from countries not only because of their good governance, but also largely due to their environmental initiatives that are unmatched.