Precious Metals Mining Projects Reach $136 Billion Worldwide

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Precious metals are defined in Webster's Dictionary as scarce and valuable metals. While definitely valuable when measured by today's commodity market, precious metals seem anything but scarce these days, as more and more precious metals ore mining projects come to fruition.

With gold trading at historic highs exceeding $1,800 an ounce in recent months and currently at about $1,780 an ounce, gold mining projects are more feasible than ever. With gold follow the other precious metals: silver and platinum group metals (pgm). Precious metal mining projects account for about 14% of the $1 trillion of mining projects worldwide. For details, see related news article - Iron & Copper Lead $1 Trillion in Global Mining Projects.

Worldwide, precious metals mining projects account for the second-highest number of mining projects after coal. Currently there are more than 600 precious metals projects totaling about $136 billion under development worldwide. These projects range from the early planning/scoping study stage through commissioning.

Click on the image at right to view a chart showing the breakdown of precious metals mining projects by world region.

Detour Gold Corporation (Toronto, Ontario) is almost 50% complete with construction on a $1.45 billion project to restart and expand the Detour Lake open pit gold mine in Ontario. Once operational in 2013, the mine will process 17 million tons per year of ore and produce 649,000 ounces of gold per year and 200,000 ounces of silver per year, making it one of the largest mines of its type in the world.

One of the larger projects to get under way this year was the $4.6 billion Oyu Tolgoi Gold-Copper mine in Mongolia.

Geographically, North America is the richest region for precious metal mining projects, with 245 project totaling $52.6 billion. Latin America is the second-richest region with 141 projects totaling $29 billion, and Africa ranks third with 100 projects totaling $25.9 billion.

Gold is commonly used in jewelry and has numerous growing industrial applications, but its main growth can be tied to demand for investment gold in the form of bullion and coins.

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