Top 5 International Gold Mining Companies Reduced Productions, Amid Pandemic

Gold is a popular precious metal, used mostly for jewellery and crafts purposes, but this metal is also used partially in the electronics and manufacturing industries, as it has high electrical and heat conductivity. According to the US Geological Survey, there are about 53,000 tonnes of gold reserves, across the globe. Major gold mining companies have gained profits with historically high margins, since the last year, as the gold prices rallied up due to the pandemic. At the present time, Newmont, Barrick, Polyus, AngloGold, and Gold Fields stayed at the top 5 statuses in Q2, 2021 considering gold productions. In the last year, 2020, Newmont, Barrick, Polyus, AngloGold, and Kinross Gold were at the top positions.

Gold mining companies had decreased their productions in the last year, marginally as the demand for physical gold declined due to the pandemic. Now, the prices in the international gold markets have dropped consistently in the last few weeks. This will impact the miners profits. In this quarter (Q2, 2021), top mining companies have again reduced their gold mining, but much larger rather than the last year's reductions. In the present situation, the demand for digital gold, gold ETF, and Sovereign gold bonds have increased in considerable amount, and zeal for physical gold is subdued. Also, in lockdown, people could not go out more to buy gold jewelleries that impacted the demands negatively. Additionally, the storage of gold jewellery and worries about safety are pushing investors to queue after virtual golds.

Newmont, the top gold miner globally has only increased its gold production by 15% to 1,449 koz in Q2 2021, rather than an almost 9% y-o-y production decline in 2020. In the same period of 2021, Barrick, Polyus, AngloGold and Gold Fields, and Newcrest, every top miner had a production cut. Barrick's Q2 2021 gold production was lower 9% y-o-y. Polyus has a 3% lower y-o-y productions 672 koz, AngloGold decreased productions by 12% at 613 koz. on the other hand, Gold Fields has increased by 2% to 563 koz.

Top 5 companies mostly declined productions due to reduced operations and subdued physical gold demand in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The other 5 five companies in the top 10 list were Newcrest at 542 koz (5% lower productions), Kinross at 538 koz (5% lower productions), Agnico Eagle at 526 koz (9% production increase), Northern Star at 451 koz (695 growth), and Harmony Gold at 411 koz (82% production increase).

Data source: Kitco