Industrial Gases and Precious Metals
by Sam A. Rushing, Advanced Cryogenics, Ltd., and Tom Wheatley, gasworld | (gasworld).
The global output of new gold in 2009 was 2,572 tonnes, which is about 75% greater than the total for 1970. The top five producing countries back then, led by South Africa, included the then USSR, Canada, US and Australia who together produced 91% of the world’s gold output.
In 2009 these five long-term producers accounted for only 37% of the new gold while China, Peru, Indonesia, Ghana and Uzbekistan delivered 29%. As the production base has diversified around the globe, extraction processes have evolved to suit the varying conditions encountered…
