Australia is one of the world’s most important gold-producing countries. The World Gold Council has several member companies operating in the country, each of whom make a significant contribution to the success of gold mining there. In 2018, Australia produced 315 tonnes of gold, making it the world’s second largest producer country behind China.
The country is also a leading hub for research and development in the mining sector. Australia’s national science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), is at the forefront of much of this work and their most recent report has generated considerable interest.
One of the most challenging aspects of gold mining is to quickly and accurately identify economically viable deposits of the metal. The decision to construct a large mine represents a huge investment and, as such, traditional exploration is extremely costly and time consuming; a company simply needs to be absolutely certain about its investment.