Gold Deposits in Europe: Top 6 Mines Ranked by Output

Among the European gold mines that publish their output, the largest single producer is the Kittilä mine in Finnish Lapland, which poured 217,379 ounces in 2025 (about 6.8 tonnes). Behind it come Chelopech in Bulgaria (174,434 ounces of gold in concentrate), the Čukaru Peki copper-gold mine in Serbia (5.177 tonnes, or about 166,000 ounces), and Bor, also in Serbia. Together with Boliden’s mines, the operations on this page add up to roughly 30 tonnes a year, under 1% of the world total.

This page ranks the producing mines by their 2025 output, lists the projects that could add ounces, and gives you two calculators to test a mine’s margin and reserve life. Ounces are troy ounces (31.1035 grams). Grade is gold per tonne of rock in grams per tonne (g/t). A mineral reserve is the part of a deposit that a company has shown can be mined at a profit under stated assumptions.

How we chose and ranked these gold mines

The ranking uses one metric: gold produced in calendar 2025, as stated by the operator in its own annual report, quarterly report or production release. We opened each document. Where a company reports gold “in concentrate” (DPM Metals) the figure is gold contained in the concentrate shipped to a smelter, which is more than the gold finally paid for. Where a company reports tonnes (Zijin) we converted at 32,150.7 ounces per tonne.

Scope: mines in geographic Europe, west of the Urals, that publish a gold figure. Mines in Turkey (Anatolia) and in Siberia, such as the large Russian operations, are outside this list. Mines that mainly produce copper or zinc and report gold as a by-product are shown in a separate note unless gold is a headline output, as at Chelopech and Čukaru Peki. This is a ranking of the operations whose filings we read, not a census of every small plant in Europe.

Gold producers in Europe ranked by latest annual output

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Gold produced by European mines in 2025

Thousand troy ounces; Serbian tonnes converted at 32,150.7 oz per tonne; DPM figures are gold in concentrate

Boliden’s mines produced 5,140 kg of gold in concentrate in 2025, about 165,000 ounces, but its report gives no per-mine gold split and the total includes Somincor and Zinkgruvan only from 16 April 2025, so it sits outside the table.

The producing mines, one by one

1. Kittilä, Finland (Agnico Eagle)

Best for: readers who want the largest single gold operation in the list, with the longest stated life.

Kittilä is an underground mine in Lapland, owned 100% by Agnico Eagle. In 2025 it milled 2,105 thousand tonnes at 3.91 g/t and produced 217,379 ounces at a total cash cost of US$1,081 per ounce, according to the company’s 2025 annual report. Proven and probable reserves were 24.749 million tonnes at 4.17 g/t, or 3.319 million ounces, at 31 December 2025, and the company expects production through 2037. A cash cost is the direct cost of producing an ounce, before items such as exploration and head office; each company defines it slightly differently.

The deposit is an orogenic gold system. Geological Survey of Finland work dates the Kittilä-area gold to about 1.91 to 1.92 billion years ago, during the Svecofennian mountain-building event, as described in the GTK summary of the Lapland gold provinces. Pros: a reserve grade of 4.17 g/t and the longest stated life in this list. Cons: output has been flat at about 217,000 to 219,000 ounces for two years, and Finland’s mining tax rose from 0.6% to 2.5% of revenue, which Agnico Eagle lists among the reasons for higher minesite costs in 2026 (Q4 2025 release).

2. Chelopech, Bulgaria (DPM Metals)

Best for: readers who want a gold-copper mine with a recently extended life.

Chelopech produced 174,434 ounces of gold and 30.0 million pounds of copper in concentrate in 2025, from 2,181 thousand tonnes of ore, against 167,029 ounces in 2024, per DPM’s January 2026 production release and its January 2025 release. In February 2026 the company raised Chelopech’s reserve to 23.2 million tonnes holding 1.6 million ounces of gold and 308 million pounds of copper, extending the mine life to 2036 at roughly 160,000 gold-equivalent ounces a year (DPM, 5 February 2026). Gold-equivalent ounces convert the copper and silver into gold at set prices.

Pros: steady output and a reserve that grew by 12% in gold. Cons: gold leaves the site inside concentrate, so what the company is paid for (150,500 payable ounces in 2025) is lower than the figure in the table.

3. Čukaru Peki, Serbia (Zijin Mining)

Best for: readers who follow the growth of copper-gold mining in the Balkans.

Zijin’s project page gives 2025 output at Čukaru Peki as 172.3 thousand tonnes of copper and 5.177 tonnes of gold. The same company reports combined output for its two Serbian mines of 296,000 tonnes of copper and 9.1 tonnes of gold. Pros: large scale, and Zijin says expansions are being advanced at both Serbian mines. Cons: gold here is a co-product of a copper operation, so it moves with copper economics.

4. Bor, Serbia (Zijin Mining)

Best for: readers comparing old mining districts that were rebuilt.

Zijin’s Bor project page lists 2025 production of 123.3 thousand tonnes of copper, 3.94 tonnes of gold and 24.1 tonnes of silver, on a 100% basis. Pros: sizeable copper and silver output alongside the gold. Cons: as at Čukaru Peki, gold is a by-product, and the company’s 2026 guidance for the two Serbian mines together is 8.1 tonnes of gold, lower than the 9.1 tonnes reported for 2025.

5. Ada Tepe, Bulgaria (DPM Metals)

Best for: readers who want to see how fast a gold-only open pit can swing from year to year.

Ada Tepe produced 70,545 ounces in 2025 from 797 thousand tonnes of ore, against 94,306 ounces from 772 thousand tonnes in 2024, according to the two DPM releases above. The company said the fourth quarter, at 24,500 ounces, was the strongest of 2025. Pros: a gold-focused operation inside the EU. Cons: output moved by about a quarter in one year.

6. Olympias, Greece (Eldorado Gold)

Best for: readers following Greece’s Kassandra Mines complex.

Olympias is part of Eldorado’s Kassandra Mines complex on the Halkidiki peninsula. It produced 59,877 ounces in 2025, down 14% from 69,532 ounces, which Eldorado attributes to throughput and recovery problems in its flotation circuit, as set out in the fourth-quarter 2025 release. A mill expansion from 500 to 650 tonnes a day was first due in the third quarter of 2026; the July 2026 report now expects completion by the end of 2026, with ramp-up in the first quarter of 2027. Olympias made 15,125 ounces in the second quarter of 2026 (Eldorado, July 2026).

Pros: a mill expansion under way. Cons: output fell in 2025 and has not yet returned to the 2024 level.

▶ Follows a nugget through the steps of mining and refining gold, from rock to ring. · 5:27

How output changed at four mines year on year

Of the four mines with a 2024 comparison in this list, only Chelopech grew in 2025, and Ada Tepe fell by a quarter.

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Boliden mines: gold in concentrate by quarter

Kilograms of gold per quarter, Q1 2024 to Q4 2025; mines include Somincor and Zinkgruvan from 16 April 2025

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Gold output, 2024 versus 2025

Thousand troy ounces; DPM figures are gold in concentrate

Boliden’s mines recorded 5,140 kg of gold in 2025 against 5,880 kg in 2024, though the 2025 total includes Somincor and Zinkgruvan only from 16 April 2025. Its quarterly gold output shows how uneven by-product ounces can be, ranging from 1,143 kg to 1,665 kg a quarter over eight quarters.

Projects that could add gold in Europe

Skouries, Greece (Eldorado Gold)

Skouries is a copper-gold project in Halkidiki. The 2022 feasibility study set a 20-year life with average output of 140,000 ounces of gold and 67 million pounds of copper a year. In its second-quarter 2026 report Eldorado kept 2026 guidance at 60,000 to 100,000 ounces of gold, with commercial production expected in the fourth quarter, and said final energization of the site depends on approval from the Greek power authority. Eldorado reported first copper-gold concentrate on 8 September 2026 (Eldorado, July 2026).

Ikkari, Finland (Rupert Resources)

Rupert’s February 2025 pre-feasibility study declared a maiden probable reserve of 52 million tonnes at 2.1 g/t, or 3.5 million ounces, and a 20-year plan averaging 227,000 ounces a year during the first ten open-pit years. The study targeted a first gold pour in 2030 (Rupert Resources, 18 February 2025). Rupert has said the feasibility study is due by the end of the first half of 2027 and an updated environmental impact assessment in the fourth quarter of 2026 (Mining Technology). It is a development project: no mine exists yet.

Curraghinalt, Northern Ireland (Dalradian)

Dalradian Gold Ltd has applied for planning permission for an underground mine at Curraghinalt, near Greencastle in County Tyrone. The Planning Appeals Commission’s case list of 21 August 2026 shows the public inquiry opened in January 2025, adjourned while the Department for Infrastructure ran a transboundary consultation, and reconvened in April 2026 (Planning Appeals Commission). It lists the mine application as still under consideration.

Roșia Montană, Romania (Gabriel Resources)

Gabriel Resources describes Roșia Montană as one of the largest undeveloped gold deposits in Europe. The project has not been built. An international arbitration tribunal issued an award on 8 March 2024, and Gabriel applied to annul it; in March 2025 the annulment committee ordered Gabriel to guarantee a cost award of about US$10 million, and Gabriel said it lacked the cash to do so (Gabriel Resources, 10 March 2025). The stay was lifted, and in its report of 29 April 2026 Gabriel listed the annulment hearing for 11 and 12 May 2026; the committee had not yet ruled. Gabriel is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange as GBU.

Other European operations

DPM Metals also owns the Vareš mine in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was still ramping up: it produced 8,000 ounces of gold in concentrate in the second quarter of 2026 and 15,000 in the first half (DPM Metals, 8 July 2026). Vareš is not ranked because it had no full year of production in 2025. Smaller operations that we did not read filings for are not ranked.

Where gold deposits in Europe sit and how big the output is

Kittilä sits in the Central Lapland greenstone belt. Three of the six ranked mines, Chelopech, Čukaru Peki and Bor, are copper-gold or copper operations, where gold output follows the copper ore rather than a gold-only plan. Output from the whole list stays small next to the major producing countries.

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World gold mine production, 2025 estimate

Tonnes of gold; top producers in the USGS table versus the mines on this page

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates world mine production at 3,300 tonnes in 2025, with China at 380 tonnes, Russia at 310, Australia at 280 and the United States at 160 (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries, 2026). Adding up the six ranked mines and Boliden gives about 30.5 tonnes, or 0.9% of the world total. That sum is our arithmetic, covers only the operations in this page, and is not a USGS figure. The World Gold Council puts 2025 world mine output higher, at 3,672 tonnes, so the share is below 1% on either total.

For a gold-price reference, the USGS estimates the 2025 average price at US$3,300 per troy ounce, and Boliden’s year-end report shows an average of US$3,440 for 2025 against US$2,389 for 2024. A higher price raises revenue per ounce but also raises royalties and taxes, as Finland’s higher mining tax shows. To compare how copper-rich systems behave, see our guide to porphyry copper deposits and the overview of copper deposit types and top countries.

Companies behind European gold: facts, not tips

These are the listed companies that report the ounces above. Exchange codes come from each company’s own release. This is not investment advice and nothing here is a price view.

• Agnico Eagle Mines (NYSE: AEM, TSX: AEM) owns 100% of Kittilä; Europe is a small part of its portfolio.
• DPM Metals (TSX: DPM, ASX: DPM), formerly Dundee Precious Metals, owns Chelopech and Ada Tepe in Bulgaria and the Vareš mine in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
• Eldorado Gold (TSX: ELD, NYSE: EGO) owns the Kassandra Mines complex in Greece: Olympias and the Skouries project.
• Zijin Mining Group operates the Bor and Čukaru Peki mines in Serbia.
• Boliden is a Swedish metals group whose mines produced 5,140 kg of gold in 2025.
• Gabriel Resources (TSXV: GBU) holds the Roșia Montană project, which is not in production.

Two calculators: mine margin and reserve life

Use these with the filings above. Kittilä’s figures are loaded as examples, with the gold price left for you to set. The first one turns ounces, a price and a cash cost into a yearly margin; the second divides a reserve by a yearly output to give years of mine life.

Permits, land and local consent

Production is only half of the story in Europe. Curraghinalt’s planning application carries a 2017 reference number and is still before the Commission. Roșia Montană is tied up in arbitration. In Finland, a project such as Ikkari must go through an environmental impact assessment and permits before a mine can open. Water is a live issue at Curraghinalt: the same inquiry covers requests under Northern Ireland’s water legislation.

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

What to check before relying on an ounce figure

Before relying on any ounce figure, check four things: the year and the unit (ounces produced, ounces payable or tonnes), whether gold is the main product or a by-product, the reserve date and grade, and the cash cost definition. Compare production with guidance in the same release. For development projects such as Ikkari or Skouries, read the study date, the gold price assumed and the capital cost estimate.

How satellites help screen ground for gold

A satellite cannot see gold. It can map the rock around it, such as iron-stained zones, clay minerals and fault lines, which helps an explorer decide where to sample. Farmonaut screens a licence area from satellite images before field crews go in, from a KML, KMZ or polygon, and reports within 5 to 20 business days. Read about satellite mineral detection or request a quote through the mining query form; for deposit styles and field methods, see our guide to finding gold deposits. For anything else, use the contact page.

▶ Explains why a satellite cannot see gold itself but can map the rock around it. · 2:00

Frequently asked questions

What is the biggest gold mine in Europe?

Among the producers ranked here, Kittilä in Finland, with 217,379 ounces in 2025 (Agnico Eagle annual report). Chelopech in Bulgaria produced 174,434 ounces in concentrate.

How much gold does Europe produce?

The USGS does not give a Europe total in its gold table. The six ranked mines plus Boliden’s mines come to about 30.5 tonnes a year by our addition, against 3,300 tonnes worldwide (USGS, 2026).

Which countries in Europe have gold mines?

Finland (Kittilä), Bulgaria (Chelopech, Ada Tepe), Serbia (Čukaru Peki, Bor), Greece (Olympias), Sweden, Finland and other countries where Boliden operates mines and Bosnia and Herzegovina (Vareš) all have operating mines in the filings we read.

Is there a gold mine in Romania?

Roșia Montană is a large deposit but Gabriel Resources has not built a mine there, and Gabriel’s application to annul the March 2024 award was still pending at 29 April 2026, with a hearing before the ICSID committee set for 11 and 12 May 2026. The stay of enforcement of the roughly US$10 million cost award ended on 23 April 2025.

Where will new European gold come from?

The projects with published studies are Skouries in Greece, Ikkari in Finland (3.5 million ounces of probable reserve) and Curraghinalt in Northern Ireland, which is in a public inquiry.

Why is gold output in Europe low compared with Australia or China?

Part of the answer is scale: USGS shows China at 380 tonnes and Australia at 280 tonnes against about 30 tonnes for the mines on this page.

What does “gold in concentrate” mean?

It is the gold contained in the material a mine ships to a smelter. Part of that gold is not paid for. DPM reported 174,434 ounces in concentrate from Chelopech in 2025 and 150,500 ounces payable.

Is Kittilä still the largest producer next year?

Agnico Eagle’s 2026 guidance mid-point for Kittilä is 220,000 ounces, close to its 2025 result, so it is likely to stay first, though guidance can change.

Are there gold mines in the UK or Ireland?

Curraghinalt in Northern Ireland is a gold project, but its mine application was still under consideration in the Planning Appeals Commission’s August 2026 case list.

Does a European gold project need land-use permits?

Land use is part of the permit process. Curraghinalt’s inquiry, for example, includes water-related requests alongside the planning application.