In early September, Africa recorded the highest in-situ value in the world for reported reserves and resources of primary gold projects – totalling US$1.48 trillion.

A study carried out by SNL Metals and Mining for the period July 2015 to August 2016 shows that the continent’s gold also made up 45% of the world’s total exploration spend allocated over this time, at nearly US$4 billion.

Despite this, Latin America accounted for the largest amount of planned and completed capital spending, with US$5.58 billion to be invested in gold projects announced from the beginning of 2015 through the end of June this year.

According to a MineWeb report, the study found that globally, there has been very little fall off in terms of exploration drilling for gold following last year’s commodity slump. In Africa, however, drilling activity has slowed.

4 October 2016
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