The history and economics of gold mining in China

As the largest producer of gold in the world, Chinaʹs gold reserves are spread across a number of orogenic belts that were constructed around ancient craton margins during various subduction–collision cycles, as well as within the cratonic interior along reactivated paleo-sutures. Among the major gold deposits in China is the unique class of worldʹs richest gold mines in the Jiaodong Peninsula in the eastern part of the North China Craton with an overall endowment of > 3000 tons. Following the dawn of metal in the third millennium BC in western China, placer gold mining was soon in practice, particularly during the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties. During 1096 AD, mining techniques were developed to dig underground tunnels and the earliest mineral processing technology was in place to pan gold from crushed rock ores. However, ancient China did not witness any major breakthrough in gold exploitation and production, and the growth in the gold ownership was partly due to the ‘Silk Road’ that enabled the sale of silk products and exquisite artifacts to the west in exchange of gold products. In the modern times, the proven reserves of gold resources in China have steadily increased from 4614.7 tons in 2005 up to 6864.79 tons in 2010, with a growth rate of 48.76%. In the past ten years, the rate of production increased by 70%, launching China as the top producer of gold in the world in 2008 when the production reached 300 tons per year. The gross industrial output of gold industry in China increased sharply from 20.82 billion Yuan up to 229.29 billion Yuan between 2000 and 2010, registering 9 times growth, and breaking the world record. A simultaneous hike in the proportion of gross value in GDP from 0.21% in 2003 up to 0.58% in 2010 is also recorded.