Where is gold mined in Australia?
One of the nation's more prolific gold-mining areas is Western Australia, which according to the Fraser Institute is one of the best mining jurisdictions in the world. Unsurprisingly, the area has attracted major miners like Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO,LSE:RIO,NYSE:RIO) and BHP (ASX:BHP,NYSE:BHP,LSE:BLT).
In fact, gold was the second most valuable commodity in Western Australia by in 2023, only behind liquefied natural gas; gold sales came in a record AU$20 billion during that time.
Overall, according to statistical data provided by the government of Western Australia, the state alone produced 211.22 tonnes of gold in 2023 compared to just 80.73 tonnes of gold produced in the rest of the country.
Within Western Australia, the Pilbara region has renewed interest and helped increase the country’s consistent gold output. Covering more than half a million square kilometres, the Pilbara area is one of the most resource-rich regions in the state. And while the Pilbara area is better known as an iron ore hotspot, it's currently in the midst of a small gold rush thanks to a major discovery in 2017 by Novo Resources (TSXV:NVO,OTCQX:NSRPF) and Artemis Resources (ASX:ARV,OTCQB:ARTTF).
Some geologists have compared the geology of the Pilbara Craton with South Africa’s Witwatersrand Basin, which is home to the Earth’s largest known gold reserves and is responsible for over 40 percent of worldwide gold production.
Both the Pilbara and Witwatersrand are similar in age and composition, sitting on top of the Archean granite-greenstone basement. The Pilbara area hosts numerous small mesothermal gold deposits containing conglomerate gold — mineralisation known to hold large, high-grade gold nuggets.
What are the biggest Australian gold mines?
Below is a guided tour of the 10 largest gold mines in Australia in terms of gold output, as per Aurum Analytics' Q2 2024 report on Australian and New Zealand gold operations.
1. Boddington
Newmont (TSX:NGT,NYSE:NEM) became the sole owner of this open-pit gold and copper mine in 2009. The asset is located 16 kilometres from Boddington, Western Australia.
Iin calendar year 2023, Boddington produced 745,000 ounces of gold, a 7 percent drop from the 798,000 produced in 2022.
Newmont expects production at Boddington to decline significantly in 2024, setting guidance at only 575,000 ounces, which it attributes to lower-grade ore. However, the company expects production to increase in 2026 as it works to complete laybacks in the north and south pits.
The mine produced 147,000 ounces of gold in the second quarter of 2024.
2. Cadia Valley
Located in New South Wales, Cadia Valley is now owned and operated by Newmont following its acquisition of Newcrest Mining in November 2023. The mine is made up of the Cadia East underground panel cave mine and the Ridgeway underground mine (currently on care and maintenance), which produce gold doré bars from a gravity circuit and gold-rich copper concentrates from a flotation circuit.
Once the biggest gold mine in Australia, Cadia’s production numbers have been in decline in recent years, slipping from 843,000 in 2020 to 597,000 ounces in fiscal 2023. Output declines in 2023 were due to planned shutdowns as the company worked on development activities for the PC1-2 project and began cave ramp-up on PC2-3.
Newmont is forecasting further declines in production from Cadia in 2024. It set guidance at 370,000 ounces as it continues on underground development on block caves and tailings expansion and plans for the next decade of mine life.
Cadia produced 117,000 ounces of gold in the June quarter of 2024.
3. KCGM
Northern Star Resources (ASX:NST,OTC Pink:NESRF) owns Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines (KCGM), which includes the Fimiston open pit — also known as the Super Pit — the Mount Charlotte underground mine and the Fimiston and Gidji processing plants. The operations reached the milestone of 50 million ounces of gold production in 2019.
KCGM is located in the legendary Golden Mile, which was once reputed to be the richest square mile on Earth. In its fiscal 2024, KCGM produced 449,032 ounces of gold, and the operations sit on 13.3 million ounces of reserves.
In mid-2023, Northern Star launched a AU$1.5 billion expansion project at KCGM that is expected to increase production to 900,000 ounces per year by 2029. As the expansion enters its second year, the company reported major works would include the installation of grinding, crushing and flotation cells along with site infrastructure.
KGCM produced 116,690 ounces of gold during the second quarter of 2024.
4. Tropicana
Tropicana is co-owned by AngloGold Ashanti (ASX:AGG,NYSE:AU,OTC Pink:AULGF), which owns 70 percent, and Regis Resources (ASX:RRL,OTC Pink:RGRNF), which owns the remaining 30 percent.
The mine spans 3,600 square kilometres and stretches over close to 160 kilometres in strike length along the Yilgarn Craton and Fraser Range mobile belt collision zone. The regional geology is dominated by granitoid rocks, making it a rare example of a large gold deposit within high-grade metamorphic rocks that have undergone widespread recrystallisation and melting.
In calendar 2023, Tropicana produced 442,887 ounces of gold, with AngloGold Ashanti’s 70 percent accounting for 310,000 ounces and the rest attributed to Regis.
As part of AngloGold Ashanti's commitment to lowering its carbon footprint, a 62 megawatt wind and solar facility is currently under construction at Tropicana. The project is expected to be completed during the first quarter of 2025 and will reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the site by an estimated 65,000 per year.
Tropicana produced 102,763 ounces of gold during the second quarter of 2024.
5. Tanami
Tanami has been fully owned and operated by Newmont since 2002 and is located in the Northern Territory's remote Tanami Desert. Both the mine and the plant are located on Aboriginal freehold land that is owned by the Warlpiri people and managed on their behalf by the Central Desert Aboriginal Lands Trust.
Tanami is a fly-in, fly-out operation in one of Australia’s most remote locations. The asset is 270 kilometres away from its closest neighbours, the remote Aboriginal community of Yuendumu.
In 2023, Tanami produced 448,000 ounces, 7 percent lower than the 484,000 ounces from the previous year. Newmont has projected that 2024 will see a further decrease to 400,000 ounces, attributing the reduced output to lower grades from deeper in the underground mine as it continues to develop the expansion.
In October 2023, Newmont announced the Tanami Expansion 2 project, which has an expected commercial production date of late 2025. Once complete, it is expected to extend the mine's life beyond 2040 and increase its annual gold production by approximately 150,000 to 200,000 ounces for the initial five years.
Tanami produced 99,000 ounces of gold in the June quarter of 2024.
6. Cowal
Owned by Evolution Mining, Cowal is the company's largest gold-producing asset. The mine is located near Bland Shire in New South Wales within the traditional lands of the Wiradjuri people.
In 2023, Evolution marked important milestones in the mine’s development with the ramp-up in production of its newly cutback Stage H portion of its open pit mine and the early completion of its underground mine.
The new underground portion of Cowal helped to deliver a record production in its fiscal year 2024 of 312,644 ounces of gold versus 276,314 ounces during its fiscal 2023.
Due to high gold prices and strong production numbers, the company reported that it has been able to repay capital costs for the acquisition and expansion at Cowal. In total, the mine generated AU$604.9 million in fiscal 2024.
Cowal produced 94,826 ounces of gold in the quarter ending June 30.
7. Jundee
Jundee is located in the Northern Goldfields region of Western Australia and is owned by Northern Star after the miner purchased it from Newmont in 2014 for AU$82.5 million. The property is well known due to the fact that it solely uses underground mining. Along with Cadia Valley, Jundee is one of the lowest-cost gold producers on this list.
The asset produced 280,963 ounces of gold in the company’s fiscal 2024, lower than the 320,201 ounces produced the previous year. Production at Jundee was impacted by a fire in the processing plant in Q4 that resulted in 10 days of unplanned downtime.
In June of 2023, Northern Star announced it would be integrating 24 megawatts (MW) of wind and 16.9 MW of solar into its existing gas power station network and would be supplementing the entire system with 12 MW of battery energy storage. Once complete renewable generation is expected to account for 56 percent of the mine's power and will contribute to a 36 percent reduction in Northern Star’s carbon footprint.
In its 2024 report released in August, the company reported that three of the four planned wind turbines have been installed, with the fourth on track for commissioning later in 2024.
During the second quarter of 2024, Jundee produced 72,661 ounces of gold.
8. St. Ives
Owned and operated by Gold Fields (NYSE:GFI,JSE:GFI), St. Ives consists of multiple open-pit and underground mines near Kambalda in Western Australia.
In Gold Fields’ 2023 annual report, the company detailed that output from St. Ives came in at 371,800 ounces of gold during the calendar year, a slight decline from the 376,700 ounces achieved in 2022. The company set guidance at St. Ives for 2024 at approximately 355,000 ounces of gold.
In March 2024, Gold Fields announced the construction of a microgrid project at St. Ives that will add 42 MW of wind and 35 MW of solar, generating 73 percent of the operation’s electrical requirements. The company expects the microgrid to be operational toward the end of 2025. Overall, it is projected to reduce scope 1 and 2 emissions at the mine by 50 percent in 2030.
St. Ives produced 70,147 ounces of gold in the second quarter of 2024.
9. Duketon South
Owned by Regis Resources, Duketon is located in the North Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia. The operation is composed of the Garden Well and Rosemont mines, with both hosting open pit and underground operations.
The primary processing facility at Garden Well has a 5 million tonne per annum throughput rate with a two-stage crushing circuit, scrubber and ball mill, as well as a 7.5 million tonne per annum carbon-in-leach circuit, which also handles slurry from Rosemont.
In the company’s fiscal 2024 report, it indicated production had decreased to 244,455 ounces of gold for the year ended June 30 from 252,672 ounces produced in 2023.
In May 2024, Regis announced it approved development for a new underground mining area at Garden Well and an extension to the Rosemont underground mine. Once these are complete, Regis is projecting annual production of 100,000 to 120,000 ounces of additional capacity by fiscal 2027.
During the quarter ending June 30, Duketon South produced 66,102 ounces of gold.
10. Fosterville
Fosterville, which is owned by Agnico Eagle Mines (TSX:AEM,NYSE:AEM), is a high-grade, low-cost underground gold mine located in the state of Victoria.
The mine has been operational since 1989, with a lifetime production of over 16 million ounces of gold. The asset produced 277,694 ounces of gold in calendar 2023, a decrease from the 338,327 ounces produced in 2022. Agnico Eagle attributes the decrease to lower grades as it processes the remaining areas of the Swan zone.
The company has forecast continued declines from Fosterville putting the mid-point of guidance at 210,000 ounces in 2024, 150,000 ounces in 2025 and 150,000 ounces in 2026. The expectation is the Swan zone will be largely depleted by the end of 2024. Steeper declines will be offset by improved ventilation, increasing the mining rate at Robbins Hill by 10 percent.
Fosterville produced 65,963 ounces of gold during the second quarter of 2024.
How to invest in Australian gold stocks?
Investing in Australian gold stocks is similar to stocks in other sectors. Gold companies issue shares on stock exchanges that are available for investors to trade. When you purchase shares of a gold stock, you are essentially purchasing a stake in the company.
Many gold companies in Australia are listed on the ASX, making them easily accessible to Australian investors. To invest in the companies that are listed on international exchanges, Australian investors will have to use a broker that has access to that market.
For North American investors looking to invest in Australian gold companies, some are dual-listed on Canadian and US stock exchanges as well, making them more accessible.
As for deciding which type of gold company to invest in, whether you choose to invest in gold-mining stocks or gold companies at the development or exploration stage should be based on your risk tolerance. In general, established companies that are producing metal are more stable and less risky than smaller companies that are still exploring for gold or building a mine.
Although no investing strategy is 100 percent foolproof, experts often recommend gold stocks as a way to hedge exposure to general stock market. That's because they tend to move in tandem with the price of gold.
For more ideas in how to invest in Australian gold stocks, check out our articles on the biggest ASX-listed gold stocks and the top-gaining ASX gold stocks year-to-date.
This is an updated version of an article first published by the Investing News Network in 2019.
Don’t forget to follow us @INN_Australia for real-time updates!
Securities Disclosure: I, Dean Belder, currently hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
Figure 01: Reverse Circulation Drilling commencing on WARDH160 at the Remorse Target
