Top Gold Producing Countries: Output in Tonnes

Top 20 gold producing countries: the 13 that USGS ranks by tonnes

China mined the most gold in 2025, an estimated 380 tonnes, ahead of Russia (310 t) and Australia (280 t), according to the U.S. Geological Survey’s Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026. The same table puts world mine output at 3,300 tonnes, so those three countries together supply about 29% of the total. The World Gold Council (WGC) also names China as the largest producer, at around 10% of global output (WGC Goldhub, 2025 data).

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Gold mine production, top eight countries

Tonnes, 2025 estimate

A fair warning about the headline “top 20”: USGS lists 13 countries by name and lumps every other producer into one line of about 1,000 tonnes, close to a third of the world. The WGC publishes a country series as a spreadsheet download (Gold Mining Production Volumes, annual data from 2010), but the page text itself names only China, so we could not cite places 14 to 20 from a public page. The table below ranks the 13 countries that a public, citable source states by name. Places 14 and onward are not named by USGS. Mali, Argentina and Chile are examples of producers whose national totals moved sharply in the WGC’s 2025 review, but this page does not claim their rank (see the section on risers and fallers). One tonne is 32,150.7 troy ounces, which is the factor to use when you convert these figures.

Source: USGS, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, gold. Figures are rounded estimates; USGS marks many of them as estimates. Reserves are the part of the resource that is economic to mine at current prices, not the total gold in the ground.

Why two sources give two world totals

Ask two agencies how much gold the world mined and you get two answers. USGS says 3,300 tonnes for 2025. The WGC, using data from Metals Focus and Refinitiv GFMS, estimates 3,672 tonnes for 2025, a fraction above the 3,663 tonnes it records for 2018 (WGC Gold Demand Trends, full year 2025). The WGC itself cautions that these estimates are revised later, so it hesitates to call 2025 a record.

The gap comes from method. USGS rounds to the nearest 10 tonnes and relies on government and company reports. The WGC builds its series mine by mine and adds estimates for small-scale and artisanal output. Country figures differ for the same reasons. Geoscience Australia’s preliminary tables show Australian gold output of 314 tonnes in 2025, up 10% from 284 tonnes in 2024 (Geoscience Australia, 2026 preliminary tables), while USGS carries 280 tonnes. If you quote a ranking, quote the source and the year with it.

The ranking order at the top is stable across both sources. What changes the order further down is how each source treats artisanal gold, which is hard to measure in countries such as Ghana and Mali. For readers tracking West Africa, our note on mining companies in Burkina Faso covers the operators behind part of that output.

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How much of the world’s gold the top countries supply

Gold mining is spread out. The top three countries in the USGS 2025 estimate supply about 29% of the world total, and the top five about 40%. That spread is one reason the WGC notes that gold is mined on every continent except Antarctica and that annual output changes slowly: annual output averaged a near-zero change between 2018 and 2024 (WGC, January 2026). The WGC’s own reading is that mined output is likely to plateau over the next few years, partly because major discoveries are becoming rarer and new mines take years to permit and build.

For a buyer of gold, a producer or a policy reader, this means the ranking in the table is unlikely to be overturned by one good year. For an explorer it means the opposite: the supply side needs new ounces just to stand still, which keeps interest in early-stage targets high.

Risers and fallers: what moved national gold output

National totals can swing when a single large mine stops or starts. The WGC’s fourth-quarter 2025 review gives clear examples, all compared with the same quarter a year earlier (WGC, full year 2025).

• Ghana rose 24%, helped by Newmont’s Ahafo North project starting up and higher output at AngloGold Ashanti’s Obuasi mine, plus more artisanal gold.
• Canada rose 15% as three new mines, Blackwater, Back River and Valentine Lake, began production.
• Australia rose 15% on broad growth across operations, with Telfer output up after Greatland Gold acquired the mine.
• Chile rose 13% as the Salares Norte mine recovered from severe weather and plant stops in 2024.
• Indonesia fell 24% after the Grasberg mud rush in the third quarter of 2025 cut production and grades.
• Argentina fell 27% as lower-grade material was placed at the Veladero mine.
• Mexico fell 18% after Equinox Gold’s Los Filos mine was suspended when land-access agreements expired.
• Mali fell 17% because of the suspension of the Loulo-Gounkoto operation.

These are quarterly swings, not full-year rankings, but they explain why Indonesia and Mexico sit lower in USGS’s 2025 estimate than they did in earlier years, and why Ghana keeps climbing the list. Each of them traces to a specific mine, which is the useful lesson: country rankings are really a sum of a few dozen large operations.

Canada’s gold: which provinces produce the 200 tonnes

Natural Resources Canada reports that Canada ranked fourth in 2024 with nearly 200 tonnes, worth C$16.9 billion, making gold the country’s most valuable mined commodity. Ontario and Quebec together supplied 68% of it (Natural Resources Canada, Gold facts).

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Canada gold mine production by province

Tonnes, 2024

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How long gold reserves last at today’s output

Reserves divided by annual output gives a rough “years of supply” figure. It is a ratio of two estimates, not a forecast, because reserves grow when new deposits are drilled out and when prices rise. Still, the spread between countries is wide. Australia and South Africa hold more than 40 years of reserves at the 2025 estimate, while Ghana holds fewer than seven. China, the largest producer, holds about eight.

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Years of gold reserves at 2025 output

USGS reserves divided by 2025 estimated production (rough ratio, not a forecast)

For a licence holder the message is practical. Countries with short reserve lives need new discoveries soonest, and countries with long reserve lives still need them to replace ageing mines. Either way, the first screening question on any licence is where the next target sits, which is the question satellite mapping of alteration and structure is built to answer.

What the reserve-life gap tells you

A short reserve life is not the same as a dying industry. Reserves are a moving accounting figure that companies update every year, so a low ratio often signals a country where much of the gold is still resource rather than reserve, or where artisanal output outruns formal drilling.

Calculate what a country’s gold output is worth

The calculator below turns a tonnage into ounces and a gross value. Use a producer’s annual tonnes from the table, or your own mine plan. The USGS annual average price for 2025 was about US$3,300 per troy ounce (USGS, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026). Spot gold was US$4,013.80 per troy ounce (Kitco bid, 26 October 2026, 6:36 a.m. New York time), so the 2025 average is well below today’s market. The price field is an input: replace it with the live price from LBMA or Kitco.

Top copper producing countries ranked by mine output

Copper follows a different pattern. Chile mined an estimated 5.3 million tonnes in 2025, followed by the Democratic Republic of Congo at 3.2 million and Peru at 2.7 million, out of a world total of 23 million tonnes (USGS, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, copper). The top three countries mine about 49% of the world’s copper, compared with 29% for the top three in gold. USGS names 13 mining countries; the rest are in an “other” line of 3 million tonnes.

Source: USGS, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, copper. Mine production is copper content, in thousand metric tonnes. Several rows are estimates.

Copper movers: Indonesia down, Russia and Zambia up

The 2025 copper estimates show the same mine-by-mine sensitivity as gold. Indonesia fell from 1.01 million tonnes to about 0.71 million after the Grasberg incident, slipping from seventh place to a tie for ninth. Russia rose from 1.02 to 1.3 million tonnes and Zambia from 0.82 to 0.94 million. The International Copper Study Group (ICSG) said in April 2026 that output at Grasberg and at the Kamoa mine in Congo remains constrained by major incidents in 2025, and it forecasts world mine production growth of 1.6% in 2026 and 2.3% in 2027, helped by the Oyu Tolgoi ramp-up in Mongolia and other expansions (ICSG press release, 23 April 2026).

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Copper mine output, selected countries

Thousand tonnes of copper content

The USGS price table shows the London Metal Exchange grade A cash price averaged about 440 US cents per pound in 2025 (an estimate), roughly US$9,700 per tonne. Check the live LME price before using any value in a model. Our guide to copper deposits and top producing countries goes into where the metal comes from geologically.

Gold and copper side by side

Shares are our calculation from the USGS tables above. Ranking in one metal says nothing about the other: China leads gold and is fourth in copper mining, while Chile leads copper and sits outside the 13 named gold producers.

From a country ranking to your own licence

A ranking tells you where gold is already mined. It does not tell you where the next deposit is. Farmonaut uses satellite data to map alteration, iron staining and structure on a licence area and flags exploration targets that sit ahead of any resource estimate; it does not replace drilling. If you hold ground and want it screened, you can send a mining query, read about satellite-based mineral detection, or see how explorers use data in our post on AI in the mining industry.

For a look at one producing country’s gold geology, see our guide to gold deposits in the United States, where USGS says Nevada alone gives about 64% of domestic output.

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Frequently asked questions

Which country produces the most gold?

China, with an estimated 380 tonnes in 2025 (USGS). Russia is second at 310 tonnes and Australia third at 280 tonnes.

How much gold does the world mine each year?

USGS estimates 3,300 tonnes for 2025. The World Gold Council’s estimate is higher, at 3,672 tonnes, because the two sources use different methods and treat artisanal gold differently.

Where does the United States rank in gold production?

Fifth, with 160 tonnes in 2025 (USGS), worth about US$17 billion. Nevada produced about 64% of it and Alaska about 22%.

Which African country mines the most gold?

Ghana, at an estimated 150 tonnes in 2025 in the USGS table, followed by South Africa at 90 tonnes. Mali also features in WGC reports, but USGS does not list it separately.

Why do rankings differ between websites?

Agencies use different methods, round differently and count artisanal gold differently. USGS and the WGC differ by roughly 370 tonnes on the world total, and Geoscience Australia reports 314 tonnes for Australia against USGS’s 280.

Which country has the largest gold reserves?

Australia, at 13,000 tonnes, then Russia at 12,000 tonnes and South Africa at 5,000 tonnes (USGS, 2026). Reserves are the economic part of a resource and change with price.

Is Canada one of the top gold producers?

Yes. Canada ranks fourth with about 200 tonnes, and Ontario and Quebec mine 68% of it (Natural Resources Canada, 2024 data).

Which country mines the most copper?

Chile, with an estimated 5.3 million tonnes in 2025, then Congo (Kinshasa) at 3.2 million tonnes and Peru at 2.7 million tonnes (USGS).

Can a country be a top producer of both gold and copper?

Yes. Peru, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Russia, China, Australia, Canada, the United States and Mexico all appear in both USGS tables, because copper porphyry deposits often carry gold as a by-product. Rankings in the two metals differ widely.

How do I convert tonnes of gold to ounces?

Multiply by 32,150.7 to get troy ounces. China’s 380 tonnes is about 12.2 million troy ounces.