OUTPUT declines at North America’s three largest gold producers are allowing mining companies in other regions to close the gap in global production rankings, said Bloomberg News citing the latest financial disclosures.
Newmont, Agnico Eagle Mines and Barrick Mining all produced less gold in 2025 than the prior year, and each expects output to fall further in 2026. By contrast, China’s Zijin Mining Group, Africa-focused AngloGold Ashanti and Uzbekistan’s Navoi Mining & Metallurgical Co. (NMMC) recorded production increases over the same period, said the newswire.
The divergence reflects differing strategic approaches.
North America’s established producers have concentrated on optimising existing operations, leaving them with fewer near-term growth levers as high-quality acquisition targets become scarcer. Rivals such as Zijin and Gold Fields have shown greater appetite for developing smaller projects and absorbing assets divested by their North American peers, supporting stronger production growth profiles, said Bloomberg.
In the former Soviet Union, expansion is being driven by both brownfield and greenfield development. NMMC is targeting output of around four million ounces by 2030 through domestic projects, while Russia’s Polyus is advancing Sukhoi Log, one of the world’s largest undeveloped gold deposits. Once the mine ramps up by the end of the decade, it could more than double Polyus’s current production.
For the North American majors, analysts suggest accelerated exploration may offer the clearest route back to output growth, with the pipeline of transformative acquisition opportunities increasingly constrained by asset availability and valuation.
AngloGold said last month a prefeasibility study of its cornerstone greenfields project Arthur confirmed average annual production of 500,000 ounces a year for its current nine year life of mine.
The study findings will be submitted to AngloGold’s board for approval in June before proceeding to a feasibility study which could take a year to complete. The estimated capital cost of Arthur, located in Nevada, is $3.6bn. “The Arthur Gold Project is a cornerstone of our strategy to build a world-class, long-life production platform in the US,” said Alberto Calderon, CEO of AngloGold Ashanti at the time.
In February, Gold Fields CEO Mike Fraser set down plans to maintain gold producton at between 2.5 to 2.7 million oz/year increasing to three million ounces annually from 2030. Its plans are based on new projects – its $1.7 to $1.9bn Windfall project in Canada and the ramp up of Salares Norte – and brownfields expansion including at Tarkwa in Ghana and at the now 100%-owned Gruyere mine in Australia.
