Nations by Unmined Gold Reserves 2025

The Scale of Remaining Underground Gold

1. Australia — 12,000 Tonnes

• Australia produced 300 tonnes of gold in 2024/25 — the highest annual output since 2022/23 — valued at over A$50 billion.
• Gold is Australia’s fourth most valuable export, sitting behind only iron ore, coal, and LNG.
• Boddington led all Australian mines in 2024/25 at 574,000 oz, followed by Tropicana (466,000 oz), Cadia (432,000 oz), and the Kalgoorlie Super Pit (405,000 oz).
• Australia’s all-time gold production record stands at 328 tonnes, set in 1999/2000, and has not been surpassed in over two decades.
• Foreign ownership of Australia’s gold mining sector stands at approximately 45 percent, with Gold Fields’ planned A$3.7 billion acquisition of Gold Road Resources set to push that figure higher.
• Western Australia accounts for roughly 70 percent of national gold output and hosts the world’s highest exploration spending per square kilometer among gold-producing jurisdictions.
• Australia’s gold export value alone is roughly equivalent to half of the country’s combined farming, forestry, and fishing exports — a ratio that underscores how dominant a single commodity can be in a diversified modern economy.

2. Russia — 12,000 Tonnes

• The Sukhoi Log deposit holds proven and probable reserves of 43.5 million ounces with total resource potential estimated at 81 million ounces — one deposit, one country, world-changing scale.
• Polyus began receiving its first gold from Sukhoi Log ore in 2024 and is targeting a processing capacity of 30 million tonnes of ore per year at full design capacity.
• Russia’s three Irkutsk region projects — Sukhoi Log, Chulbatkan, and Chertovo Koryto — are projected to produce a combined ~3 million ounces of gold per year at full capacity.
• Russia stopped publishing official gold production statistics in 2022, making independent verification of its mining output impossible for international analysts.
• Russia’s 2021 gold output — the last fully verified year — totaled 330.9 tonnes of mined gold, one of the highest annual figures in its post-Soviet history.
• The Sukhoi Log ore body lies within Upper Proterozoic black shale and sandstone, approximately 850 km northeast of Irkutsk, and hosts the highest-grade zones containing 4 to 9 grams per tonne gold.
• Russia has systematically accumulated gold reserves over the past decade as a sanctions-proof monetary asset, building the world’s fifth-largest central bank gold reserve by the mid-2020s.

3. South Africa — 5,000 Tonnes

• The Witwatersrand Basin has yielded an estimated 40,000+ metric tonnes of gold — over 1.3 billion ounces — representing roughly one-third of all gold ever mined in human history.
• South Africa’s gold output peaked above 1,000 tonnes per year in the mid-1970s and has since collapsed to approximately 98.9 tonnes in 2024 — a decline of more than 90 percent over five decades.
• The South African gold mining market is valued at USD 14.4 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow at a 3 percent CAGR through 2030, driven by sustained high gold prices, which offset declining production volumes.
• South Africa accounted for over 20 percent of global gold production at its 1970s peak; by 2022, that share had fallen to approximately 2.8 percent.
• Gold Fields’ South Deep mine in the Witwatersrand sits 3 kilometers underground, making it one of the deepest operating mines in the world and a proof point that the Basin’s deep resources remain technically accessible.
• The very first recorded gold discovery on the Witwatersrand was made by Jan Gerrit Bantjes in June 1884 — two years before George Harrison’s famous 1886 find that triggered the full-scale gold rush and the founding of Johannesburg.
• South Africa’s share of global mining exploration budgets has fallen below 1 percent, and the Fraser Institute consistently rates it as one of the least attractive mining investment destinations — a dual challenge of geological and governance factors that compound the sector’s decline.

4. Indonesia — 3,800 Tonnes

• Indonesia produced approximately 100 metric tonnes of gold in 2024, ranking 10th globally, with Grasberg and its associated underground operations in Papua remaining the dominant single production center.
• Grasberg holds reserves of 1.7 billion tonnes of ore grading 1.2 g/t gold — making it one of the most valuable individual mining assets on Earth by any measure.
• Approximately 18,000 people work directly at the Grasberg complex, making it one of Indonesia’s largest single-site private employers.
• Indonesia’s total mining exploration budget in 2024 reached USD 113.8 million — 35 percent of the entire Pacific-Southeast Asia region’s exploration spending.
• The Indonesian government secured a 51 percent ownership stake in Grasberg in 2017, fundamentally reshaping how the country captures value from its most productive mining asset.
• Indonesia holds total gold reserves estimated at approximately 2,600 tonnes by government and industry sources — roughly 5 percent of the world’s total.
• The Grasberg open pit measured approximately one mile wide at the surface before transitioning to three separate underground operations: Grasberg Block Cave, Deep Mill Level Zone, and Big Gossan.

5. Canada — 3,200 Tonnes

• Canada produced approximately 200 metric tonnes of gold in 2024, ranking among the global top five and making gold the single most valuable mineral commodity in the country.
• Canada’s total minerals and metals production reached $64.3 billion in 2024, with mineral exports of $153 billion representing 21 percent of all Canadian merchandise exports.
• The Toronto Stock Exchange and TSX Venture Exchange list roughly 40 percent of the world’s publicly traded mining companies, with a combined market value exceeding $603 billion.
• Ontario’s gold reserves grew 165 percent between 2000 and 2023, reflecting both new discoveries and improved geological understanding of the Canadian Shield’s gold systems.
• Canada invested $4.1 billion in mineral exploration in 2024, with precious metals accounting for 44% of total exploration spending.
• The average compensation in Ontario’s mineral extraction sector reaches $149,661 per year — nearly double the all-industry provincial average — making mining one of the highest-paying industries in Canada.
• Indigenous Peoples represent 12 percent of Ontario’s mining workforce — among the highest representation by industry in the province — and there are over 142 active agreements between mining companies and Indigenous communities.

6. China — 3,100 Tonnes

• China produced 377.24 tonnes of domestic raw material gold in 2024 — the world’s largest national output for over 15 consecutive years.
• Total gold production, including imported raw materials processed in China, reached 534.1 tonnes in 2024, reflecting China’s enormous smelting and refining infrastructure.
• China’s central bank raised gold reserves by 44.17 tonnes in 2024 to a record 2,279.57 tonnes, making it the sixth-largest national gold reserve holder globally.
• Chinese gold consumption reached 985.31 tonnes in 2024 — the largest national gold consumption market in the world, even after a 9.58 percent decline due to high prices.
• Chinese gold ETF holdings surged 48.7 percent in the first three quarters of 2024, reaching 91.39 tonnes, as domestic investors shifted toward gold amid headwinds in the property and equity markets.
• Three separate Chinese provinces announced gold deposit discoveries, each potentially exceeding 1,000 tonnes in 2024–2025, suggesting the USGS’s 3,100-tonne reserve figure is a significant underestimate.
• China accounts for approximately 10 percent of total global gold mine production and has been the world’s number-one gold producer for more than 15 straight years.

7. United States — 3,000 Tonnes

• Nevada produced 3,479,748 troy ounces of gold in 2024 — down 13.7 percent year on year, but still representing approximately 75–80 percent of the entire US national output.
• Nevada Gold Mines operates 10 underground mines and 12 surface mines across northern Nevada, making it the largest single gold mining operation in the Western Hemisphere.
• The Carlin Trend has produced over 85 million ounces of gold since 1965 — making it the most prolific gold district in North American history.
• Nevada Gold Mines completed a 200-megawatt solar plant in 2024, projected to supply 17 percent of the joint venture’s annual power demand and cut CO₂ emissions by 234,000 tonnes per year.
• Alaska produced approximately 22.6 tonnes of gold in 2023, making it the second-most productive gold state in the US, with the undeveloped Donlin Gold project estimated to hold 39 million ounces of resources.
• The United States holds the world’s largest official gold reserve at 8,133+ tonnes — stored at Fort Knox, West Point, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York — representing roughly 75 percent of US foreign exchange reserves.
• In 2016, Nevada ranked fourth among the world’s gold-producing jurisdictions, behind only China, Australia, and Russia.

8. Peru — 2,500 Tonnes

• Peru’s gold mining market is valued at USD 8.5 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow at a 2 percent CAGR through 2030.
• Peru produced 99.9 metric tonnes of gold in 2023, with La Libertad region contributing approximately 34 percent of national output — the largest regional share in the country.
• The Yanacocha district has produced over 37 million ounces of gold since 1993, operating at altitudes between 3,500 and 4,100 meters — one of the highest-altitude large gold mines in the world.
• Yanacocha was first mined by pre-Incan communities thousands of years ago; its modern hydrothermal alteration zone stretches 15 km long by up to 8 km wide.
• Total deforestation from gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon has reached 139,169 hectares as of mid-2025, with 97.5 percent concentrated in the Madre de Dios region.
• Gold mine production in Peru expanded 25.9 percent year on year in January 2024 alone — one of the strongest single-month gold output surges recorded in recent Latin American mining history.
• Illegal mining activity has been identified in 225 rivers and streams across nine Peruvian Amazon regions, with 989 mining dredges counted in Loreto’s waterways since 2017.

9. Brazil — 2,400 Tonnes

• Brazil’s formal gold mine production fell approximately 84 percent from 2022 to mid-2024, largely due to tighter enforcement, including mandatory electronic invoicing that replaced a paper system widely exploited by illegal miners.
• In 2022, Brazil was exporting more gold than it was officially producing — approximately 7 tonnes more on average — suggesting massive volumes of illegal gold were laundered into export supply chains.
• Swiss imports of Brazilian gold exceeded Brazil’s officially reported exports by 67 percent in 2022 and 62 percent in 2023, revealing the scale of illegal Amazon gold flowing through international refining centers.
• Illegal mining destroyed 4,219 hectares inside Brazil’s four largest Indigenous territories in 2023–2024 — an area nearly half the size of Manhattan.
• Brazil’s top three gold export destinations in 2024 were Canada ($1.84B), Switzerland ($948M), and the United Kingdom ($579M).
• Global gold prices rose 44 percent in 2024, directly intensifying pressure on illegal Amazon mining by making the economic incentive to risk enforcement dramatically stronger.
• Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court closed the legal loophole allowing gold buyers to accept gold without a proven origin — a landmark ruling targeting the laundering pipeline from Amazon mines to global markets.

10. Kazakhstan — 2,300 Tonnes

• Kazakhstan produced 130 metric tonnes of gold in 2024, ranking it among the USGS top 10 gold-producing countries globally — a near-doubling of output since 2016.
• Five new gold deposits were registered in 2025 — Kok-Zhon, Altyn-Shoko, Samombet, Studenchesky, and Takyr-Kaldzhir — adding approximately 98 tonnes to Kazakhstan’s national reserves.
• Kazakhstan’s international reserves reached $124.1 billion in late 2025, with the gold portfolio alone valued at $41.9 billion — one of the most gold-heavy sovereign portfolios relative to GDP in the world.
• The National Bank of Kazakhstan purchased 22 tonnes of gold in 2025, placing the country among the world’s top three central bank gold buyers that year.
• Gold-bearing ore production in Kazakhstan has increased 2.2 times over the past decade, driven by capital investment, improved processing technology, and aggressive geological exploration.
• Glencore’s Altyntau Kokshetau mine produced 603,000 oz in 2024; SolidCore Resources (formerly Polymetal) produced 490,000 oz — together accounting for roughly one-third of Kazakhstan’s total output.
• Kazakhstan ranks 5th globally in gold reserves according to Uzbekistan’s Airbus satellite data analysis, and gold comprised 33.4 percent of Uzbekistan’s — confirming Central Asia as a region of extraordinary, underappreciated gold endowment.

11. Uzbekistan — 1,800 Tonnes

• Muruntau produced 2.68 million ounces in 2024 — the world’s second-highest output by a single mine, behind only Nevada Gold Mines.
• The Muruntau open pit measures approximately 3.5 km long, 3 km wide, and 600 meters deep, with plans to extend the depth beyond 1,000 meters.
• Total estimated resources at Muruntau exceed 150 million ounces (4,000+ tonnes), with remaining reserves estimated at 2,500-5,300 tonnes, depending on the cutoff grade used.
• Gold accounts for 33.4 percent of Uzbekistan’s total exports, generating over $7 billion annually and making it the dominant driver of the country’s foreign-exchange earnings.
• Navoi Mining and Metallurgical Company (NMMC) earned $1.5 billion in profit in just the first half of 2025 alone, driven by high gold prices and Muruntau’s extraordinary production volumes.
• The Uzbekistan government committed $3.63 billion to modernize its mining industry from 2017 to 2026, with Stage V of Muruntau development targeting 50 million tonnes of ore per year.
• Two of the world’s five largest gold deposits — Muruntau and Almalyk — are located within Uzbekistan’s borders, a geological concentration matched globally only by the United States.

12. Mexico — 1,400 Tonnes

• Mexico’s total gold mine production in 2023 reached approximately 135 metric tonnes, though it fell by about 14 tonnes versus the prior year due largely to a four-month operational suspension at Newmont’s major Peñasquito mine in Zacatecas.
• Gold production increased 4.4 percent year on year from January to April 2024, making gold the only major mining product recording positive output growth at a time when most other Mexican metals posted year-on-year declines.
• The Mulatos gold district in Sonora was first documented by Jesuit priests in 1635 — nearly 400 years before modern open-pit techniques transformed it into a major commercial operation.
• Zacatecas and Durango both recorded double-digit growth in gold production in 2024, at 16.7 and 17.1 percent, respectively, signaling a geographic shift in Mexico’s gold center of gravity toward central states.
• Mexico’s all-time monthly gold production record is 11,688 kilograms, set in June 2015 — a peak that has not been re-approached, indicating significant room for recovery under favorable investment conditions.
• Orogenic gold occurrences in Mexico are found across Sonora, Baja California, and the Acatlán-Oaxacan metamorphic complexes, reflecting diverse deposit types formed over hundreds of millions of years during multiple tectonic episodes.
• Mexico’s average monthly gold production from 1980 to 2026 is approximately 3,555 kilograms — but April 2024 alone reached 6,673 kilograms, a 27.6 percent year-on-year surge driven by resumed operations and favorable pricing.

13. Ghana — 1,000 Tonnes

• Ghana produced an estimated 4.9 million ounces (~136–149 metric tonnes) of gold in 2024 — a historic high representing 8.5 to 19.3 percent year-on-year growth.
• Ghana’s gold exports reached $11.6 billion in 2024 — a 52.6 percent increase from $7.6 billion in 2023 — and contributed to a GH₵44.7 billion national trade surplus.
• Ghana has the largest open-pit gold mine in Africa by physical size — the 200-square-kilometer Tarkwa mine operated by Gold Fields in the Western Region.
• Indigenous communities in Ghana have been extracting gold from the Ashanti Belt since at least the 10th century, making Ghana home to one of the longest continuous gold mining traditions in the world.
• Ghana’s Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining sector contributed $5 billion in export revenue and employed over one million people in 2024.
• Gold regularly accounts for nearly half of Ghana’s total merchandise exports, making it the dominant driver of the country’s trade balance.
• The Obuasi mine restarted in December 2019 after years on care and maintenance, and AngloGold Ashanti’s redevelopment plan projects approximately 21 more years of operation at around 400,000 oz per year.

14. Mali — 800 Tonnes

• Mali’s industrial gold production fell 23 percent to 51 metric tonnes in 2024, down from 66.5 tonnes in 2023 — the lowest annual figure in over three years, driven by the Loulo-Gounkoto shutdown.
• Despite the production collapse, Mali’s state mining revenue jumped 52.5 percent to 835.1 billion CFA francs (~$1.4 billion) in 2024, driven by higher tax rates under the new 2023 mining code.
• Barrick Gold remained Mali’s largest producer in 2024 at 19.4 tonnes (before the December shutdown), followed by B2Gold at 13.7 tonnes and Resolute Mining at 7.2 tonnes.
• Mali’s National Directorate for Geology and Mines estimates total geological gold potential at 2,000 tonnes — more than double the USGS’s conservative 800-tonne proven reserve figure.
• Mali’s new 2023 mining code requires the state to hold up to a 35 percent stake in all mining operations, up from 20 percent previously, a change that has undermined investor confidence in new project development.
• Gold accounts for approximately 80 percent of Mali’s total exports and supports the livelihoods of over two million people — roughly 5 percent of the entire national population.
• In addition to gold, Mali holds an estimated 2 billion tonnes of iron ore, 5.8 billion tonnes of lithium, and significant uranium and bauxite deposits — resources that could eventually diversify the country’s revenue base beyond its reliance on gold.

15. Colombia — 700 Tonnes

• Colombia’s total mining exports reached USD 27.548 billion in 2024 — accounting for 55.6 percent of national export revenue — with gold the second-most valuable commodity, behind coal.
• The Nechí Alluvial Gold Property in Antioquia updated its mineral reserves to approximately 1,355,000 ounces in February 2025 — one of the largest alluvial gold operations in Latin America.
• The Antioquia department has been continuously mined for gold since pre-Columbian times, with evidence of Indigenous goldworking in the Nechi-Cauca district extending back thousands of years before European contact.
• AngloGold Ashanti’s La Colosa project in Tolima — one of the largest undeveloped gold deposits in Latin America — has not yet received production permits due to sustained community opposition over water rights and impacts on agricultural land.
• New scientific research published in 2026 found a measurable link between gold mining activity and perinatal mortality in Colombian communities located near active mining sites.
• Colombia’s artisanal and small-scale gold mining sector operates across conflict-affected regions where armed groups extract taxation from miners, providing illicit financing for criminal organizations while simultaneously sustaining livelihoods for hundreds of thousands of people.
• The Birimian volcanic belt of West Africa and the Middle Cauca gold-bearing system of Colombia share geological process similarities linked to ancient tectonic activity, connecting Colombia’s gold story to the same geological family as Ghana’s famous Ashanti Belt.

16. Tanzania — 400 Tonnes

• Tanzania’s mining GDP reached an all-time high in Q4 2024, accounting for approximately 10.1 percent of total GDP — far above the 1–5 percent regional average across East Africa.
• Small-scale miners in Tanzania contributed to a $1.5 billion increase in gold production between 2021 and 2025, achieving 96 percent of the government’s production targets — one of the most successful artisanal-sector formalization outcomes in Africa.
• The Geita mine’s remaining mineral reserves stand at 3.25 million ounces as of year-end 2024, supporting continued production of approximately 483,000 ounces per year.
• Geita has produced more than 8.3 million ounces of gold since 2000, from Archean iron-formation deposits that formed approximately 2,640 million years ago during a period of crustal extension.
• Tanzania’s mining sector GDP has grown more than 1,000 percent in nominal terms from its Q4 2008 low, representing one of the most dramatic structural economic transformations in East African history.
• Tanzania is the dominant mining economy in East Africa, with mining accounting for 10.1 percent of GDP, far exceeding the contributions of Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and other regional peers, where mining typically contributes less than 2 percent of GDP.
• Tanzania renegotiated multiple mining agreements with Barrick and other operators in recent years, securing increased government ownership stakes, higher royalty payments, and new local ore processing requirements that capture more value for Tanzanian citizens.

Implications of These Figures

• Australia and Russia each hold 12,000 tonnes of unmined gold — the highest of any nation in the world, according to USGS January 2024 data — for a combined reserve of 24,000 tonnes that dwarfs every other country’s individual contribution.
• South Africa’s 5,000 tonnes sit in one of the most geologically prolific formations in history — the Witwatersrand Basin, which has produced 40,000+ metric tonnes of gold since 1886, representing roughly one-third of all gold ever mined by humanity.
• Indonesia’s Grasberg mine holds reserves of 1.7 billion tonnes of ore grading 1.2 g/t gold, making it one of the most valuable individual mining assets on Earth, anchoring Indonesia’s 3,800-tonne national reserve figure.
• China’s 3,100 tonnes is almost certainly an undercount — three separate provinces announced discoveries each potentially exceeding 1,000 tonnes in 2024–2025, while China produced 377.24 tonnes of domestic gold in 2024 and raised central bank reserves to a record 2,279.57 tonnes.
• The United States holds 3,000 tonnes underground while simultaneously maintaining the world’s largest official gold reserve at 8,133+ tonnes, and Nevada Gold Mines operates 22 individual mines across northern Nevada from a single joint venture.
• Uzbekistan’s Muruntau mine produced 2.68 million ounces in 2024 — second globally among individual mines — from a pit 3.5 km long, 3 km wide, and 600 meters deep, visible from space.
• Mali’s 800 tonnes have become one of the most politically volatile mining assets in West Africa, with the military government seizing Barrick’s gold in early 2025, triggering a months-long shutdown while state revenues paradoxically jumped 52.5 percent to $1.4 billion.
• Global gold production in 2024 reached 3,300 metric tonnes, meaning the combined reserves of these sixteen nations represent roughly 19 to 20 years of global supply at current extraction rates.

The Long View