China's gold production up 6.59 pc till May 2012

In May alone, the country's gold output hit 31.2 tonnes, China's Ministry of Industry and IT said in a statement.

In the first five months, China's top 10 gold companies produced 70.3 tonnes of finished gold, up 0.96 per cent year- on-year and accounting for nearly half of the country's total output.

The growth rate of the first five month is, however, lower than 10 per cent that was registered in the January- March period of 2012.

China continued to be the world's largest gold producer for the fifth straight year in 2011, as gold output hit 360.96 tonnes, up 5.89 per cent from the previous year, Xinhua reported.