WORLD GOLD COUNCIL
Thursday, September 27, 2001
NEWS RELEASE
Vital role of gold mining in the economies
of Asia and the Pacific highlighted by new report.
LONDON: 27th September 2001 - Gold mining and gold exports play a
vital role in the economies of many countries of Asia and the Pacific
region, but their futures have been increasingly threatened by the low
international price of gold of recent years. Exploration and new mine
development in the less developed countries of the region has been curtailed
which, in turn, has had an adverse impact on infrastructure development
and employment and undermines their economic independence.
These are some of the conclusions of a new report published today by
the World Gold Council. Prepared by Penelope Plowden and Georgina Wilde,
independent consultants who are both former members of the Economist Intelligence
Unit, it examines the importance of gold mining in 14 countries in the
Asia-Pacific region. Entitled "Burning Bright: The Importance of
Gold Mining to the Asia-Pacific region " the report is the third
in a series commissioned by the World Gold Council into the gold industry's
role in world economic development. Previous reports have reviewed the
position in sub-Saharan Africa and the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries
(HIPC), and in the countries of Latin America. All three reports are available
free of charge from the World Gold Council or can be downloaded in pdf
form from the website (www.gold.org).
The latest report studies the impact of gold mining on the developed
economies of Australia, New Zealand and Japan and at the other end of
the economic scale the island economies of Papua New Guinea and Fiji,
and in between countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the
Philippines. It argues that gold mining has the potential to make a big
contribution to development of the poorer nations in the region if they
can attract investment but the low gold price of recent years has proved
a deterrent to starting new projects and has caused others to be closed.
The report also underlines the importance of gold mining to Australia,
one of the largest economies in the region and the world's third largest
gold producer, which has seen gold production fall by 5 percent and its
contribution to exports reduce by 1 percent since 1997 as a number of
high cost mines were closed or put on care and maintenance. The report
comments that "the Australian gold mining sector is proving resilient
to the present low gold price through merger, the depreciating Australian
dollar and cost control but this process cannot continue without threatening
output and exploration".
At the other end of the development spectrum, the economy of Papua New
Guinea, now the tenth largest producer of gold, has been largely driven
by the mining of gold and other minerals. More than two-thirds of PNG's
exports in 1999 were accounted for by minerals, and mining sector investment
represented more than 90 percent of new investment flows in 1994-96. Gold
also accounts for more than 30 percent of the total value of the country's
exports. But while gold production has risen by 54 percent since 1997
revenue has only increased by 30 percent and, as with other companies
in the region, future development is being adversely affected by a slowdown
in exploration activity and potential new mine development.
The report also cites several other nations, such as Malaysia, Indonesia,
the Philippines, Vietnam and China as countries which could benefit significantly
from an increase in gold mining activity.
Click
here for the full text in pdf format.
Enquiries to:
Jill Leyland, Senior Economic Adviser, Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7766 2709
E-mail: jill.leyland@wgclon.gold.org
Keith Irons, Bankside Consultants 020 7444 4155 or 07885 356 639
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