The World’s Biggest Gold Mines

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The price of gold has more than doubled in the past five years, creating considerable interest in trading the precious metal. Roughly $75 billion is traded in the London bullion market every day.

Despite demand, gold is extremely scarce. By some estimates, all of the gold ever mined in the history of the world would fill only two Olympic-size swimming pools. Given the U.S. Geological Society estimates that just 51,000 tons of global gold reserves remain in the ground, gold mining remains a lucrative business.

For a look at the world’s biggest gold mining operations, CNBC analyzed the most recent data from Thompson Reuters and Metals Economics Group, which included information only from publicly traded companies.

For this report, CNBC included mines that are located on a singular property. “Mining operations” can be classed as a mine, but in the case where several mines or deposits are combined with a central processing facility, these operations were excluded from this list.

One example of this situation is in Newmont Mining’s Nevada operation, where several separate mines are grouped together. However, Newmont does not disclose production numbers for its individual mines in Nevada, so this mining operation was excluded.

Click ahead to see where most of world’s gold comes from!

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10. Boddington

Location: Boddington, Australia

Gold Production In 2011: 741,000 oz

Active Miners: Newmont Mining

Mining Operations: Open pit

Photo: Newmont Mining Corp.

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