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The gold mining sector continues to rely on older discoveries for reserve growth despite a sustained gold price rally in recent years, an annual analysis by S&P Global finds.
According to the database of gold discoveries tracked by S&P, the gold sector added three new major discoveries in 2024, taking the global inventory (reserves, resources and past production) to nearly 3 billion oz. across 353 deposits.
The gold ounces represent an increase of 3% or 82 million oz. over 2023, which had 350 deposits containing a total of 2.9 billion oz.
The S&P analysis points out that — consistent with its previous reports — almost all of the new additions to its list were discovered decades ago and have only recently met its 2-million-oz. criteria for a “major gold discovery”.
Notably, no major discoveries occurred during the 2023–24 period, and since 2020, only six…
