China eyes 450 tonne gold output

Top gold producer China aims to produce between 420 and 450 tonnes of the precious metal in 2015, up about 25 per cent from 2011, while consumption may reach 1,000 tonnes by then, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said.

China is already the main consumer of a range of commodities, including copper, coal and iron ore, and the world's second-largest gold consumer after India has to import large quantities of bullion to satisfy domestic demand. It gave no further details, but said that China aimed to keep unmined gold resources at 8,000 to 9,000 tonnes by 2015.