Supply & Mining

All-in Sustaining Costs (AISC) are a standardised metric of the gold mining industry that captures all costs required to sustainably maintain a mine's current production capacity.

Historical gold extraction process in which liquid mercury dissolves gold and silver from ore and binds them as an amalgam, which is then separated by heating.

Byproduct mining refers to the recovery of a precious metal as a secondary product during the extraction of another, primarily targeted raw material.

Conflict gold refers to gold mined in war or crisis zones whose proceeds are used to finance armed groups or human rights abuses.

Hydrometallurgical process for gold extraction in which crushed ore is treated with a dilute sodium cyanide solution to selectively dissolve gold.

Doré bars are pre-refined crude bars of gold and silver cast directly in mines or smelters, subsequently processed to fine metal quality in a refinery.

Mine production describes the total quantity of precious metal extracted from ore through mining, where the ore grade and the economically viable minimum grade (cut-off) determine which material is actually mined.

Two fundamental extraction methods in mining, in which ores are recovered either in open-pit operations (near the surface) or by underground mining (in deep tunnels and shafts).

Ore grade indicates how many grams of a precious metal (e.g. gold or silver) are contained per tonne of raw ore, and is the most important metric for assessing the economic viability of a mine.

Precious metal recycling refers to the recovery of gold, silver, and platinum group metals from scrap material such as jewellery, electronic waste, and industrial residues through chemical or thermal processing methods.

Primary mining refers to the extraction of precious metals directly from the earth through mining, as opposed to secondary recovery from recycled material.

A refinery separates (refines) precious metals from scrap gold, industrial waste and ores, and processes them into high-purity fine metal.

Refining (affinage) refers to the industrial purification and processing of crude precious metals to commercially or investment-grade finenesses.

Fairtrade Gold is certified gold from artisanal and small-scale mining that meets minimum social standards, environmental requirements, and a binding Fairtrade premium on top of the market price.

Urban mining refers to the targeted recovery of precious metals and other valuable materials from e-waste, end-of-life devices, and industrial waste streams as a complement to primary mining.