PRODUCTION COSTS: U.S. AND CANADIAN GOLD PRODUCERS

摘要

The cost curve below compares available information on 2004 operating costs for 18 U.S. gold mines and 20 Canadian gold mines. The cost figures are plotted against each mine's percentage of its respective group's total 2004 gold production. Output from the U.S. mines totaled about 7.4 million oz in 2004, while the Canadian mines produced almost 3.7 million oz. The average cash cost for the group of U.S. mines was 277 dollars/oz, with a weighted average cost of 248 dollars/oz. For the Canadian mines, the average cash cost was 245 dollars/oz, with a weighted average cost of 201 /oz. Most of the Canadian mines are underground operations using conventional cyanidation or flotation processing, while the majority of the U.S. mines are open pit, heap leach operations. Comparing 2004 production and costs with 2003, the number of active gold mines in the United States increased by one to 18, with the restart of Kinross's Kettle River mine in Washington state, the reporting of residual leaching from what is now Western Goldfields's Mesquite mine in California, and the one-year closure of Placer Dome's Golden Sunlight mine, which reopened in January 2005. The number of active gold mines in Canada decreased by two to 20, with the closure of Miramar's Giant mine in the Northwest Territories and Kinross's Lupin mine in Nunavut. Total gold production from the two countries decreased by about 10.9 percent to a total of 11.1 million oz. Average gold prices were almost 13 percent higher at 410 dollars/oz, and the weighted average cash costs per ounce for U.S. and Canadian production increased by 10.5 percent to