Gold has been a highly prized commodity for hundreds of years, and yet much of it still stays inside the Earth’s surface. A substantial amount of the valuable metal may be found as deposits in gold mines all over the world, most of that are owned and operated by gold mining corporations.
Operating a single gold mine requires significant capital investment along with prospecting, labor costs and land rights. For that reason, it’s a difficult industry to interrupt into. Once mining sites are established, gold miners are tasked with extracting gold from ore deposits, that are situated hundreds of meters underground.
So it’s easy to see why gold mining corporations invest significant amounts of cash into the method. The price of the valuable metal has gained greater than 70% over the past five years and is an important resource for a lot of industries.
If you must put money into gold — or more specifically, gold mining corporations — it’s helpful to know which of them own the most important gold mines. While there are more details to know than the scale of an organization’s gold mines, investors can profit from understanding who the leaders within the industry are.
The highest-producing gold mining corporations
Publicly traded gold mining corporations are required to report quarterly and annual earnings reports and other information with their shareholders. These corporations also share what number of tons of gold they produce every year.
Based on that information, the next are the highest five gold mining corporations 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
Newmont can be the world’s largest gold mining company by market cap. While it’s approaching a $50 billion market cap, Agnico Eagle Mines is closing in on a $40 billion market cap. Barrick Gold is just shy of a $30 billion market cap. For income-focused investors, each Newmont and Agnico Eagle Mines pay dividends that yield above 2%.
Barrick Gold and Agnico Eagle Mines are Canadian-based miners, while Newmont is a U.S.-based miner. Nonetheless, each company has mines situated worldwide. Russian-based Polyus has a market cap of roughly $15 billion after converting the Russian ruble to U.S. dollars. Navoi Mining and Metallurgical Company is headquartered in Uzbekistan.
The world’s biggest gold mines
The most important gold mining corporations own and operate mines worldwide. Acquiring more mines allows corporations to extract more gold and command higher profits. The ten largest mines are spread across several countries, with three of them calling the U.S. home:
- Grasberg Mine (Indonesia): Owned by the Indonesian government (51.23% stake) and Freeport-McMoRan (48.77% stake)
- Muruntau Mine (Uzbekistan): Owned by the Navoi Mining and Metallurgy Company
- Cortez Mine (United States): Owned by Nevada Gold Mines
- Super Pit Mine (Australia): Owned by Northern Star Resources
- Yanacocha Mine (Peru): Owned by Newmont
- Tarkwa Mine (Ghana): Owned by Gold Fields, with the federal government of Ghana maintaining a ten% stake
- Carlin Trend Mine (United States): Owned by Nevada Gold Mines
- Lihir Mine (Papua Latest Guinea): Owned by Newcrest Mining
- Goldstrike Mine (United States): Owned by Nevada Gold Mines
- Boddington Mine (Australia): Owned by Newmont
Nevada Gold Mines owns a number of the top 10 gold mines. That company is a three way partnership owned by Barrick Gold and Newmont — the 2 largest gold mining corporations on this planet. Barrick Gold has a 61.5% stake in Nevada Gold Mines, while Newmont has a 38.5% stake.
Should investors buy gold mining stocks or physical gold?
Investing in gold mining stocks appears more attractive on the surface. It might probably be easier to purchase stocks of those corporations than it’s to buy physical gold.
Investors also should store and insure physical gold, while a gold mining stock stays in your portfolio with none storage costs. Finally, some gold mining corporations pay quarterly dividends to shareholders. Meanwhile, physical gold doesn’t produce yield.
Nevertheless, that’s where the benefits end for gold mining stocks. At the tip of the day, investors care about growing their money as quickly as possible. For essentially the most part, gold mining corporations fall short and underperform quite a lot of assets, including physical gold.
Newmont, Agnico Eagle Mines and Barrick Gold are the highest three gold mining corporations based on market cap. Despite Newmont and Agnico Eagle Mines each paying dividends around 2% yields, the long-term returns of those corporations don’t compare to physical gold.
Here’s how those three gold mining stocks have performed over the past yr as of Nov. 20, 2024 in comparison with the one-year performance of gold itself:
- Newmont: 17.23%
- Agnico Eagle Mines: 70.03%
- Barrick Gold: 13.77%
- Physical gold: 32.62%
Agnico Eagle Mines is the one company that delivered the next one-year gain than gold. But when comparing that company’s five-year return of 37.70% to gold’s five-year return of 74%, the difference between owning shares of gold mining corporations versus physical gold is obvious.
Gold mining corporations deliver different returns from physical gold because each company has fluctuations in revenue, operating expenses and net income, all of which impact long-term performance.
Physical gold outperformed Newmont and Barrick Gold over the past yr, however the gap expands when five-year gains:
- Newmont: 11%
- Agnico Eagle Mines: 37.70%
- Barrick Gold: 3%
- Physical gold: 74%
Even when factoring for dividends, Newmont and Agnico Eagle Mines can’t compete with gold’s five-year returns. It’s easier to carry onto shares of gold mining corporations, but investors who want to maximise their returns should consider adding physical gold to their investment portfolios.
Read our guide to the best online gold dealers to learn more about precious metal investing.
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