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Peru becomes world's 5th gold producer - Regional
Published: Tuesday, February 28, 2006 14:10 (GMT -0400)
Peru's gold production in 2005 took the country from sixth to fifth spot in the world ranking of gold producers, overtaking Russia, according to figures that were published by London-based Gold Fields Mineral Services (GFMS).
The GFMS reckons Peru produced 198t (198,000kg) of gold in 2005 based on estimates contained its "Gold Survey 2005 Update 2" document, the organization told BNamericas in an e-mail. The full figures are being compiled for its Gold Survey 2006.
According to the energy and mines ministry (MEM), gold output soared 20% to 207,822kg (6.68Moz) in 2005 thanks mainly to growth at its largest mines and the coming on stream of the new Lagunas Norte gold mine.
Lagunas Norte, owned by Canadian miner Barrick Gold (NYSE: ABX), produced 550,000oz of gold since coming on stream early in June 2005, accord to the figures published on MEM's website.
Meanwhile the region's largest gold mine Yanacocha, controlled by US miner Newmont (NYSE: NEM), saw production rise 409,000oz, or 14.1%, to 3.32Moz last year, the statistics show.
Another notable performance came from private miner Aruntani that saw output rise 62% in 2005 to 207,335oz of the yellow metal from its mining units in southern Peru.
But small players also took advantage of high gold prices with the Madre de Dios group of artisan miners registering an 8.85% increase to 517,360oz in 2005.
OTHER MINERALS
Meanwhile output of copper, the country's main export by value, fell 2.5% to 1.01Mt in 2005 compared to the previous year, according to the MEM figures.
But Peru's production of molybdenum, a common byproduct of copper mining, soared 21.6% in 2005 to 17,325t year-on-year, said MEM.
Also performing positively in 2005, silver output rose 4.4% to 3.19Mkg, lead production increased 4.3% to 319,345t, iron output lifted 7.5% to 4.56Mt and tin by 1.3% to 42,145t.
On the downside, Peru's production of zinc dipped 0.6% to 1.20Mt, the figures show.
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