Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources gave its first multi-year gold output
estimate, telling TASS Minister Alexander Kozlov that ore production this year
should be 480–500t, roughly in line with last year’s ~480t. The ministry
confirmed Kozlov was referring to gold mining but provided no further detail. If
accurate, the figure would make Russia the world’s largest gold producer and is
about 50% above the World Gold Council’s c.330t 2024 estimate. Executives at two
major Russian gold miners said they doubted the number and could not reconcile
it. Moscow has not published official gold production data since 2022, and the
The country has not brought major new deposits into production recently, which would
make a rapid output jump difficult.
