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General Market Commentary
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General Precious Metals
RANKED: Top 10 lowest cost gold projects on the globe
While average production costs at existing gold mines are on the rise, new gold projects expected to enter the production stream in the mid-term horizon will gradually determine what margins the gold mining industry can offer to potential or future investors.
Mining Intelligence, a MINING.COM sister company, looked at costs at new primary gold development projects using its proprietary database and ranked them based on all-in-sustaining costs (AISC), which is a benchmark of a mine’s operating efficiency. Development projects are defined as those undergoing feasibility studies and being under permitting and construction phases, with feasibility studies results released to the public.
The data used by Mining Intelligence represents companies reporting quarterly production and listed on the following stock exchanges: TSX (+TSX-V), ASX, LSE (+LSE-AIM), NYSE, and JSE. Ranking is based on available data.
#1 Skouries – $215
Eldorado Gold’s Skouries project is a high-grade gold-copper porphyry deposit located in the Halkidiki Peninsula in northern Greece. On November 9, 2017, the project was put on care and maintenance as a result of ongoing permitting delays caused by environmental protests. Eldorado has received installation permits for Skouries mine project in September 2019, and Greece’s new conservative government plans to issue mining permit for Skouries soon.
#2 Kirazli – $373
Alamos Gold’s Kirazlı project is located in the Çanakkale Province in the Biga Peninsula of northwestern Turkey. Positive feasibility study was completed in 2017 with project contemplated as low-cost stand-alone open-pit, heap-leach operation. On October 14 2019, Alamos suspended all construction activities on Kirazlı project pending the renewal of its Turkish mining concessions which expired on October 13, 2019 and has not been renewed yet due to large-scale environmental protests.
#3 Hod Maden – $374
Lidya Madencilik’s Hod Maden project is located in northeastern Turkey within the Eastern Pontides metallogenic belt. Gold-copper mineralization in the Main Zone at Hod Maden is multi-stage and includes massive sulphide mineralization and breccia hosted mineralization. Lidya Madencilik has commenced the permitting process.