10 biggest gold mines of the world

Gold has been a valuable and highly sought-after precious metal for coinage, jewelry, and other arts long before the beginning of recorded history.

A total of 165,000 tonnes of gold have been mined so far.

There are differences of opinion about which gold mine should be ranked 1. Some consultants say the world's largest gold mine, by production, is the Muruntau gold mine in Uzbekistan while others think it is the Grasberg gold mine in Indonesia.

Among the most valuable sources for gold mining production data, besides reports from mining companies themselves, are the Raw Materials Group in Solna, Sweden; Canada's Metals Economics Group in Halifax, Nova Scotia; and Intierra Resource Intelligence, based in Perth, Australia.

Ibtimes.com recently came up with a list of the 10 biggest gold mines in the world, based on 2010 production data available. Read on. . .

1. Grasberg Gold Mine

This mine is located in the Indonesian province of Papua.

It produced 2,025,000 ounces of gold, according to the annual report of Rio Tinto Plc.

The majority of the mine is owned by Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.

Besides gold, it produces silver and copper.

It has about 19,500 employees.

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2. Muruntau Gold Mine

This mine, which is about 250 miles west of the capital in Uzbekistan.

It is believed to have produced approximately 1,800,000 ounces of gold in 2010.

The project, which is an open-pit operation, is run by state-owned Navoi Mining and Metallurgical Combinat.

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3. Carlin-Nevada Complex

This mine is in the US state of Nevada.

It produced 1.735 million ounces in 2010.

The mine is owned by Newmont Mining Corp.

It includes both open-pit and underground operations.

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4. Yanacocha Gold Mine

This mine in northern Peru is the largest gold mine in Latin America.

It produced 1.46 million ounces of gold.

It is run by Newmont Mining and owned by Newmont Mining and Buenaventurda, a Peruvian company.

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5. Goldstrike (Betze Post) Gold Mine

This mine is located northwest of Elko, Nevada.

It produced 1.24 million ounces of gold.

It is owned by Barrick Gold Corp.

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6. Cortez Gold Mine

This mine is located southwest of Elko, Nevada.

It produced 1.14 million ounces of gold.

It is owned by Barrick Gold.

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7. Veladero Gold Mine

This mine is in Argentina.

It produced 1.12 million ounces of gold.

It is owned by Barrick Gold Corp.

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8. Lagunas Norte Gold Mine

This mine is in north-central Peru.

It produced 808,000 ounces of gold.

It too is owned by Barrick Gold Corp.

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9. Lihir Gold Mine

This mine is in Papua New Guineau.

It produced 790,974 ounces of gold.

It is owned by Newcrest Mining Ltd., Australia's largest gold producer.

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10. Super Pit/Kalgoorlie

This mine is an open-cut mine in Western Australia.

It produced 788,000 ounces of gold.

It is co-owned by Barrick Gold Corp. and Newmont Mining.