Active Gold Mines in the USA: 13 Largest by Ounces

Active gold mines in the USA: the 13 largest producers ranked

Yes, the United States has dozens of active gold mines. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) counts more than 40 lode mines in 12 States (lode means gold mined from hard rock, as opposed to placer gold washed from gravel), plus several large placer mines and many small ones in Alaska and the western States. Together they produced an estimated 160 tonnes of gold in 2025, worth about US$17 billion. The ranked table below names the 13 largest operations whose 2025 gold output is published by their owners, with Nevada’s Carlin mine first at about 1.1 million ounces.

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Eight largest US gold mines by 2025 output (of 13 ranked)

Thousand troy ounces; mixed bases, Pogo not ranked (no calendar-2025 figure)

How we ranked them: by ounces of gold produced in calendar 2025, taken from each owner’s own fourth-quarter or annual report. The bases are not identical, so read the notes. The four Nevada Gold Mines (NGM) sites are shown at 100%, although Barrick owns 61.5% and Newmont holds the other 38.5%. Fort Knox, Round Mountain and Bald Mountain are reported by Kinross as gold-equivalent ounces. One troy ounce is 31.1035 grams; 1,000 ounces is written koz and a million ounces Moz.

Sources: Barrick (Nevada Gold Mines sites), Kinross, SSR Mining, Coeur Mining and Hecla, all for the 2025 calendar year. Added together, the 13 mines made roughly 3.9 million ounces, or about 123 tonnes, which is around three quarters of the USGS national estimate. The rest comes from smaller lode mines, placer operations and gold recovered as a by-product of copper mining.

Other active gold mines and projects not in the ranking

Several operations are active but missing from the table because their 2025 calendar-year gold output is not published on the same basis, or because they are small.

• Pogo, Alaska. Northern Star’s underground mine sold 81,815 ounces in the June 2026 quarter, up from 66 koz in the March quarter. Northern Star reports on an Australian June financial year, so there is no calendar-2025 figure to rank it fairly.
• Mesquite, California. Equinox Gold’s open pit made 14,761 ounces in the fourth quarter of 2025.
• Placer mines. USGS notes several large placer mines in Alaska and numerous smaller ones, mostly in Alaska and the western States. They do not report to stock exchanges, so per-mine figures are rarely public.
• Copper by-product gold. About 7% of U.S. gold in 2025 was recovered as a by-product of base-metal ores, mainly copper (USGS). Arizona and Utah copper mines are the usual source.

Mines that are not producing

Some famous names are not active, which is why older lists mislead. Jerritt Canyon in Nevada is not in Alaska, as some pages say. It was suspended by First Majestic in 2023, and the company’s 2026 budget includes about US$75 million for a restart program. In April 2026 the company appointed a managing director, effective 20 April, to lead the restart of the mine. Our post on Jerritt Canyon covers the mine in more detail. The Homestake mine in Lead, South Dakota, stopped gold mining in the early 2000s (sources give 2001 to 2003) and the site now hosts an underground physics laboratory, as the U.S. Department of Energy describes. Today South Dakota’s gold comes from the Wharf mine.

Two big projects are on the way rather than producing. Perpetua’s Stibnite project in Idaho holds 4.8 Moz of gold reserves after the US Forest Service issued its final Record of Decision. Kinross took construction decisions in January 2026 on Round Mountain Phase X, Curlew and Bald Mountain Redbird 2, a group it expects to add 3 million ounces of production over time. Hycroft in Nevada published an initial assessment (technical report summary) in June 2026 for a pressure-oxidation mill; it is a preliminary study and no construction decision has been reported.

Which states produce the most gold

Nevada produced about 64% of U.S. gold in 2025 and Alaska about 22%, so two States supply roughly 86% (USGS). Older pages, including an earlier version of this one, said Nevada made over 80%; the 2026 USGS summary does not support that. The top 25 operations produced about 94% of domestic gold, which explains why a short table covers most of the country’s output.

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Share of US gold mine production by state, 2025

Percent of national total

Nevada’s lead comes from the Carlin Trend and Cortez trend, belts of sediment-hosted gold deposits where the metal is very fine and often invisible to the eye. The four Nevada Gold Mines sites alone mined about 2.59 million ounces in 2025, near 80 tonnes, or about half of all U.S. output. Alaska’s output comes from the Fort Knox, Pogo, Kensington and Greens Creek mines plus placer operations. Colorado, South Dakota and California each hold one or two mid-size mines. For a state-by-state map of where the gold occurs rather than who mines it, see our guide to gold deposits in the United States.

How US gold output has changed

US mine production fell from 187 tonnes in 2021 to an estimated 160 tonnes in 2025, a drop of about 14%, according to the USGS salient statistics. In the same period the average price rose from US$1,801 to about US$3,300 per troy ounce, so the value of the output went up even as the tonnage fell. Mine and mill employment was about 13,000 people in 2025. One visible factor is Round Mountain, where Kinross reported its resources falling as the mine moves from open pit to underground, and where it cut stacking on the heap-leach pads in line with its mine plan. Kinross expects its 2026 construction projects to extend Nevada mine lives well into the 2030s.

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US gold mine production

Tonnes per year

Spot gold was US$4,123.60 per troy ounce on 20 October 2026 (Kitco bid, as reported by Depor). Prices change every day, so use the calculator below with the current quote rather than this figure.

What a US gold mine earns per ounce

Gold miners report all-in sustaining cost (AISC), the cost of producing and sustaining one ounce including mine upkeep and corporate costs. In 2025 Marigold’s AISC was US$1,918 per payable ounce (SSR Mining), while Northern Star’s Pogo reached US$1,384 per ounce in the June 2026 quarter. Barrick’s Carlin AISC was US$1,906 per ounce for the full year. At a gold price near US$4,000, that leaves a margin of more than US$2,000 per ounce before tax, royalties and growth spending. Use the calculator to test a mine of your own size and cost.

How gold is mined and processed at these sites

Methods differ by deposit. Wharf and Cripple Creek & Victor are heap-leach operations: crushed ore is stacked on pads and a dilute solution is trickled through it, a method suited to low-grade ore (Wharf placed ore averaging about 0.9 g/t gold in 2025, grams of gold per tonne of rock). Carlin, Cortez and Turquoise Ridge combine open pits with underground mining. Fort Knox feeds a mill, and Kensington and Pogo mine underground. Cut-off grade, the lowest grade that still pays for mining and processing, decides what is ore and what is waste at every one of them, and it moves up and down with the gold price.

▶ Follows one gold nugget from rock to ring: drilling, crushing, dissolving and refining. · 5:27

Where the next US gold mines may be found

New mines start as exploration targets. Companies screen large land packages with geology maps, geochemistry and satellite data before they drill. Satellites cannot see gold itself; they map the iron stains, clay minerals and faults that hot fluids leave around a gold system. Farmonaut produces satellite mineral detection reports for exploration licences, and its results are exploration targets that sit ahead of any resource estimate. Mining consultants use such screens to decide where fieldwork is worth the money.

Mine life and what the owners say is next

A mine’s output matters less to a consultant or investor than how long it can keep going. Owners publish reserves (ore that is economic to mine) and resources (mineralisation that may be mined later). The latest company statements show where growth is expected.

Read the table as company statements, not independent estimates. Each owner uses its own gold price assumption for reserves; SSR Mining, for example, used US$1,700 per ounce for its 2025 reserves, and Northern Star used US$1,900 for Pogo reserves. A mine with a low reserve price assumption has room to grow reserves when the gold price is high, and the reverse holds when prices fall.

Who runs the active gold mines

Ownership in US gold is concentrated. Nevada Gold Mines, a joint venture between Barrick and Newmont, runs the four biggest Nevada mines. Kinross operates Fort Knox, Round Mountain and Bald Mountain. SSR Mining bought Cripple Creek & Victor and closed the deal on 28 February 2025, and says its 2026 plan makes it the third largest US gold producer. Coeur Mining runs Rochester, Kensington and Wharf, Hecla runs Greens Creek, Northern Star runs Pogo, and Equinox Gold runs Mesquite. Stock tickers and share prices change, so check a current exchange listing before relying on any of them; this page gives facts only and no buy or sell view.

How to check whether a US gold mine is really active

1. Look for a production figure in the owner’s latest quarterly report. A mine with no quarterly ounces is not producing, whatever a directory says.
2. Check for words such as care and maintenance or temporary suspension in the report notes, as with Jerritt Canyon.
3. Compare the ownership percentage used. Joint ventures such as Nevada Gold Mines can be shown at 100% or at the owner’s share.
4. Confirm the permit status with the state regulator or the federal land agency for the site.
5. Match the metal. Rochester and Greens Creek are mainly silver mines; counting them as gold mines inflates a list.

Directory sites and older blog posts often skip these checks, which is why some still list mines that closed years ago.

▶ Explains the 1872 mining law and why owning a gold claim is not owning the land. · 3:19

Mining terms used on this page

• Lode and placer. Lode gold sits in hard rock and needs crushing; placer gold sits loose in gravel and is washed out.
• Grade (g/t). Grams of gold per tonne of rock. Heap-leach mines work grades below 1 g/t, while underground mines such as Kensington need higher grades to pay for the shafts and stopes.
• Gold equivalent. Silver or other metals converted to gold at fixed prices so one number can describe a mixed mine; Kinross reports its US mines this way.
• AISC. All-in sustaining cost per ounce, a non-standard measure each company defines for itself.
• Reserve and resource. A reserve is ore shown to be economic; a resource is mineralisation with reasonable prospects of being mined. Satellite screens like those from Farmonaut produce exploration targets, which sit ahead of both.
• Heap leach. Ore is stacked on a lined pad and a solution dissolves the gold as it drains through.
• Refractory ore. Gold locked in sulfide minerals that must be oxidised before the metal can be recovered.

What drives mine decisions

The gold price sets the cut-off grade, and cut-off grade sets which rock is ore. When the price rises, lower-grade rock turns into ore, mine lives lengthen and owners restart projects such as Jerritt Canyon. When it falls, marginal pits close first. Costs matter as much: Kinross reported that the cost of sales at Round Mountain rose from US$1,527 to US$1,918 per ounce between 2024 and 2025, mainly because fewer ounces were sold, while Fort Knox rose from US$1,205 to US$1,339. Kinross put the Fort Knox rise down to higher royalties and maintenance costs. For the chemistry and history of the metal itself, see our gold on the periodic table post.

Mine owners also weigh timing. A new Nevada project needs permits, a construction decision and several years of building before the first ounce is poured. Kinross took its construction decisions in January 2026, and it expects the projects to extend mine lives into the 2030s, so no new ounces from them are in the 2025 figures above.

Land, water and permits

US gold projects work under federal, state and tribal rules, and most large mines sit partly on federal land, where a claim gives a right to the minerals but not title to the ground. New mines need an environmental review and a Record of Decision before construction, as the Stibnite project shows. State agencies set the water, tailings and reclamation conditions for each site. Nevada’s environmental division, for example, handles a water pollution control permit renewal for Nevada Gold Mines’ Cortez Hills project, which covers open pits, an underground mine and waste rock facilities. Anyone planning fieldwork must confirm land status and permission first.

▶ Explains seven environmental impacts of mining in plain words. · 2:31

Frequently asked questions

How many active gold mines are there in the USA?

USGS says gold was produced at more than 40 lode mines in 12 States in 2025, plus several large and many small placer mines (USGS, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026). The top 25 operations made about 94% of the output.

Which is the biggest gold mine in the USA?

Carlin in Nevada, with about 1.1 million ounces in 2025 on a 100% basis (Barrick). Cortez and Turquoise Ridge, also in Nevada, follow.

Which state has the most gold mines?

Nevada, which produced about 64% of national output in 2025, followed by Alaska at about 22% (USGS).

Are there active gold mines in Alaska?

Yes. Fort Knox (Kinross), Pogo (Northern Star), Kensington (Coeur) and Greens Creek (Hecla), plus placer operations, were active in 2025 and 2026.

Are there active gold mines in California?

Mesquite, run by Equinox Gold, is producing, and Equinox also reported ounces from Castle Mountain in the fourth quarter of 2025. For panning and prospecting rules, read can you pan for gold in California.

Is the Homestake mine still open?

No. It stopped mining in the early 2000s and became a research laboratory. Wharf is the active gold mine in South Dakota.

How much gold does the USA produce?

USGS estimates 160 tonnes in 2025, down from 187 tonnes in 2021. China, Russia, Australia and Canada ranked higher; see top gold producing countries.

Who owns the largest US gold mines?

Barrick (61.5%) and Newmont (38.5%) own Nevada Gold Mines. Kinross, SSR Mining, Coeur Mining, Hecla, Equinox Gold and Northern Star operate most of the remaining mid-size mines.

Can a private person look for gold at these sites?

Not on mine property. Land around mines is usually private or under claim. Read the rules for the land you want to visit, get permission, and never use mercury. A hand-held gold detector is only useful where prospecting is allowed.

Does the US need more gold mines?

That is a policy question. The relevant numbers: US mine output fell about 14% between 2021 and 2025, while three Nevada projects and Stibnite are in the development pipeline (company reports and USGS).