Golden Grip: The Top Owners of the World’s Largest Gold Mines
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Gold: A Highly Prized Commodity
Gold has been a highly prized commodity for thousands of years, and yet much of it still remains within the Earth’s surface. A considerable amount of the precious metal can be found as deposits in gold mines around the world, most of which are owned and operated by gold mining companies.
The Gold Mining Process
Operating a single gold mine requires significant capital investment in addition to prospecting, labor costs and land rights. For that reason, it’s a difficult industry to break into. Once mining sites are established, gold miners are tasked with extracting gold from ore deposits, which are located thousands of meters underground.
The Price of Gold
The price of the precious metal has gained more than 70% over the past five years and is an essential resource for many industries. If you want to invest in gold — or more specifically, gold mining companies — it’s helpful to know which ones own the biggest gold mines. While there are more details to know than the size of a company’s gold mines, investors can benefit from understanding who the leaders in the industry are.
The Top-Producing Gold Mining Companies
Publicly traded gold mining companies are required to report quarterly and annual earnings reports and other information with their shareholders. These companies also share how many tons of gold they produce each year. Based on that information, the following are the top five gold mining companies based on 2023 year-end gold production:
- Newmont: 172.3 tons
- Barrick Gold: 126 tons
- Agnico Eagle Mines: 106.8 tons
- Polyus: 90.3 tons
- Navoi Mining and Metallurgical Company: 88.9 tons
Should Investors Buy Gold Mining Stocks or Physical Gold?
Investing in gold mining stocks appears more attractive on the surface. It can be easier to buy stocks of these companies than it is to buy physical gold. Investors also have to store and insure physical gold, while a gold mining stock stays in your portfolio without any storage costs. Finally, some gold mining companies pay quarterly dividends to shareholders. Meanwhile, physical gold doesn’t produce yield.
However, that’s where the advantages end for gold mining stocks. At the end of the day, investors care about growing their money as quickly as possible. For the most part, gold mining companies fall short and underperform a lot of assets, including physical gold.
Newmont, Agnico Eagle Mines and Barrick Gold are the top three gold mining companies based on market cap. Despite Newmont and Agnico Eagle Mines both paying dividends around 2% yields, the long-term returns of those companies don’t compare to physical gold.
More from Money:
How China Became the World’s Largest Gold Consumer and Producer
Beginner’s Guide to Investing in Precious Metals
