Gold bugs have been riding a scorching rally in 2025. With a gain of over 50%, gold is one of the best-performing assets year to date, buoyed by strong buying pressure from central banks and retail investors.
Gold shot up to a record high close to $4,400 an ounce last month before succumbing to profit taking. After spending time below the $4,000 level, expected US interest rate cuts and persistent fears about inflation saw bullion climb again this month.
With rising costs and lead times for new mines continuing to lengthen, many question whether gold companies can sufficiently increase production to meet the rising demand.
While some of the 20 largest properties ranked by measured and indicated gold resources face an uphill battle to go into production and many greenfield properties have been stalled for years, the pipeline of potential projects continues to swell as gold prices stay on the boil.
1. Pebble
Stage: Prefeasibility/Scoping
Coming in No.1 is Northern Dynasty Minerals’ Pebble project with 69.84 million ounces (moz) of contained metal. The project has been stalled for over a decade due to its location near the Bristol Bay watershed in Alaska. Its fate remains up in the air amid a legal battle over the US Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to veto the project.
2. Olympic Dam
Stage: Expansion
Olympic Dam is number two, with 65.6moz of gold. BHP’s copper, gold and uranium complex in South Australia is set for a significant expansion in the coming years. BHP plans to invest A$840 million on a series of growth projects to tap into other deposit areas. It is also host to one of the top copper-producing mines in the world.
3. Grasberg
Stage: Operating
In third spot is the Grasberg gold-copper mine, situated in the Sudirman Mountain Range with 54moz of gold. Operated by Freeport McMoRan, the mine grabbed headlines this year for a deadly accident at its largest underground deposit that sent the copper industry into a supply panic. Part of Grasberg remains under long-term development, such as the Kucing Liar orebody, and the earlier-stage Dom deposit.
4. KSM
Stage: Prefeasibility/Scoping
Seabridge Gold’s Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell (KSM) is in fourth place with 41.40moz of contained metal. The project in British Columbia has been federally approved for a decade but delayed over ESG issues. KSM is also involved in a legal dispute between its operator Seabridge and a neighbouring explorer, Tudor Gold.
5. Donlin
Stage: Contruction/Planning
Donlin, the second Alaska project to make the list, ranks number five with 40moz of metal. Mining giant Barrick (TSX: ABX; NYSE: B) previously held a 50% interest in the project, but sold its stake to partner Novagold Resources (TSX: NG) and US hedge fund billionaire John Paulson earlier this year. The new owner is eyeing a new feasibility study in 2027.
6. Siembra Minera
Stage: Prefeasibility/Scoping
Siembra Minera in Venezuela ranks sixth with 26.82moz of gold. The project is owned by Siembra Minera, a joint venture of Gold Reserve (55%) and the Venezuelan government (45%). Last year, Gold Reserve raised $36 million to advance the copper-gold project in Bolivar state.
7. La Colosa
Stage: Prefeasibility/Scoping
AngloGold Ashanti’s La Colosa project in Colombia ranks seventh with 23.35moz. The project has faced local opposition, and has been under force majeure since the Tenth Administrative Court of Ibagué ratified a mining ban in Colombia’s Cajamarca municipality, upholding the result of a 2017 referendum.
8. Filo del Sol
Stage: Prefeasibility/Scoping
The Filo del Sol project, straddling the international border between Chile and Argentina has 22.3moz of metal. It was acquired this year by BHP and Lundin Mining. Filo del Sol was previously held by Canada’s Filo Corp., which had advanced the project to a pre-feasibility stage based only on the oxide resources at surface.
9. Pascua-Lama
Stage: Advanced Exploration
Barrick’s beleaguered Pascua Lama project in Chile has 21.87moz of contained gold. Environmental issues plagued the project, and Barrick has to spend $136 million shutting down Pascua-Lama after a Chilean court ordered its “total and definitive” closure.
10. Cascabel
Stage: Feasibility Started
SolGold’s Cascabel project in Ecuador is number 10 with 21.80moz of contained metal. The company this year moved its tax domicile to Switzerland as it pushes the project into development. Cascabel is backed by some of the biggest names in the industry, including BHP and Newmont.
11. Treaty Creek
Stage: Reserves Development
Tudor Gold’s Treaty Creek project in British Columbia ranks 11th with 21.66moz of gold. This year, Tudor applied for a permit for underground exploration at the project, located in the province’s northwest.
12. South Deep
Stage: Operating
Gold Field’s South Deep is in 12th place with 21.1moz of metal. The South African mine has been in development and operation since the 1970s and has an estimated mine life that runs past 2100, which would make it potentially the last major gold mine in the country.
13. Nevada Gold Mines
Stage: Expansion
Nevada Gold Mines, a joint venture between Barrick and Newmont, and operated by Barrick, ranks 13th with 20.16moz of metal. The partnership between the companies dates back to 2019, after Barrick had made a hostile takeover bid for Newmont, which at the time was the smaller of the two. Now, Newmont could potentially make a play for Barrick’s interest in the Nevada assets.
14. Onto
Stage: Prefeasibility/Scoping
Vale’s Onto copper and gold deposit in Indonesia has the same 20moz of gold as Norte Abierto, but its orebody is different and its measured and indicated resource is slightly higher. Sumbawa Timur Mining, a joint venture between Eastern Star Resources Pty 80%), a subsidiary of Vale, and ANTAM, first announced the discovery in 2020.
15. Norte Abierto
Stage: Prefeasibility/Scoping
Norte Abierto, a 50/50 joint venture between Barrick and Newmont in Chile has 20moz of contained gold. The mining complex, situated in the northern Atacama region, was created in 2017 following the merging of the separate Cerro Casale mine owned by Barrick and the Caspiche mine owned by Newmont- Goldcorp, into a JV.
16. Golden Summit
Stage: Prefeasibility/Scoping
Freegold Ventures’ Golden Summit project in Alaska ranks 16th, with 18.24moz of metal. In July, a resource update lifted the contained indicated metal by 42% – and the company’s shares to a five-year high.
17. Elang-Dodo
Stage: Reserves Development
The Elang-Dodo project on Sumbawa Island, West Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia, has 16.78moz of gold. It is owned by PT Amman Mineral Nusa Tenggara, which also operates the nearby Batu Hijau mine.
18. Metates
Stage: Prefeasibility/Scoping
Chesapeake Gold’s Metates project in Mexico’s Durango state has 16.77moz of contained metal. In 2021, the company said it cracked the code at Metates to undertake the heap leach processing of sulphide material that ultimately has the potential to disrupt and enhance the project economics of sulphide ore bodies globally.
19. Panguna
Stage: Prefeasibility/Scoping
Papua New Guinea’s Panguna mine contains 16.1moz of metal. Once owned by Rio Tinto and now run by Bougainville Copper, the project has a storied past. The mine closed in 1989 due to an uprising against the project and a resulting civil war that lasted about a decade and killed as many as 20,000 people. Rio disposed of its share of the project in 2016. In September, Papua New Guinea’s National Court dismissed a multi-billion-dollar class-action lawsuit against Rio Tinto.
20. Detour Lake
Stage: Operating
Rounding out our ranking is Agnico Eagle Mines’ Detour Lake project in Ontario with 15.79moz of gold. Last year, Agnico Eagle updated its plans for the Detour Lake mine, including the preliminary economic assessment for underground development.
By Mining.com – https://www.mining.com/featured-article/ranked-worlds-20-biggest-gold-projects/