The grade or concentration of a mineral or metal in ore directly affects costs associated with mining as well as its subsequent beneficiation and extraction of precious components.
Under otherwise equal conditions, a lower grade means a higher cost per unit weight of extracted metal making high-grade ore deposits a crucial consideration for all types of investors in mining.
For more accurate basis of comparison, gold operations have been split into underground and open-pit, since these mining methods utilize different techniques/equipment and it does make sense to identify “the best in the breed” gold operations within one mining category, first. In this research, focus has been made on ore grade in reserves while putting aside other crucial parameters like ore tonnage and volume of metal contained in ore.
Here is the list of the world’s top ten open-pit and underground gold operations in terms of ore grade, based on available 2014 data.
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