Russia ups gold production 7% to 226 tonnes in 2012

On preliminary results, in 2012 in Russia extracted 226 tons of gold that approximately on 15 tons (for 7%) it is more, than in 2011 declared the head of the Union gold getters of Russia Sergey Kashuba .

"Own extraction and production made 222 tons. Plus about 4 tons is a gold in concentrates. About 8.5 tons are a secondary production", - noted Kashuba at a forum "Precious metals of Russia and the CIS".

If the world prices for gold are will remain at rather high level, Russia can increase production of gold by 5% annually till 2020.  The main gain of gold mining in Russia is provided by the largest gold mining companies of the country "Pole Gold" and "Polymetal".

Among the countries leaders on production of gold in the world are China, the USA and Australia. Russia in 2012 year kept the fourth place in the world by the production of gold. Also in 2012 year Russia became the largest buyer of gold in the world. Over the last ten years the Bank of Russia purchased 570 tons of gold that for 25% exceeds the volume of purchases of China which took the second place.

However Russia takes only the eighth place in the world on the volume of stocks of gold. On the first place there are USA with a gold stock in 8,134 thousand tons, they are followed by Germany (3,391 thousand tons) and IMF (2,814 thousand tons). Italy, France, China and Switzerland settled down on the fourth or seventh places respectively.