Mine Infrastructure

Precious Metal Production by Mine Type

Mine infrastructure shows which types of mine produce gold and silver, over the last five years.

Mines producing precious metals have been grouped into one of the following categories:

• Gold (producing gold only, no silver)
• Gold/Silver (producing gold with a silver by-product or vice versa)
• Silver, designated |Ag| (producing silver only, no gold, with a single exception – Imiter mine in Morocco which produces massive amounts of silver but relatively small amounts of gold, and so really is a silver mine rather than a gold/silver mine)
• Copper, designated |Cu| or |IOCG| (producing either gold or silver, or sometimes both as a by-product. IOCG are iron oxide copper gold type deposits)
• Lead/Zinc, designated |Zn| (primarily producing silver, but also sometimes gold, as a by-product.)
• Other (inc. PGM), designated |PGM|, |Ni| or |Sn| (PGM – platinum group metals mines, and nickel and tin mines, producing mostly gold as a by-product.)
• ASM (primarily gold, rarely also gold and silver)

Many poly-metallic mines do not fit easily into one of these categories. The primary output of the mine is the key factor in determining the appropriate category.

Mines and Projects

For measurement definitions relating to infrastructure, refer to the definitions page.