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According to the latest report from the Peruvian National Society of Mining, Oil and Energy (Sociedad Nacional de Minería, Petróleo y Energía – SNMPE) Peru was the largest gold producer in Latin America mining 151 metric tons of the precious metal in 2017.
Within the two-year period 2016 – 2017 Peru produced a total of 304 metric tons of gold making the country the 6th largest gold producing nation in the world only surpassed by China, Australia, Russia, the US and Canada and followed by South Africa, Mexico, Uzbekistan and Indonesia.
Peru’s main gold producing regions in 2017 were La Libertad with 43 metric tons and Cajamarca with 33 metric tons followed by Arequipa (20 metric tons) and Ayacucho (12 metric tons).
SNMPE further informed that Peru was after Mexico the second largest silver producer in Latin America and the world in 2017 producing 4,304 metric tons - within the two-year period 2016 – 2017 8,679 metric tons.
Leading silver producing regions in Peru in 2017 were Ancash (802 metric tons), Lima (794 metric tons), Junín (781 metric tons) and Pasco (602 metric tons).
Featuring the world’s largest-known silver reserves (about 120,000 known metric tons) the country still has a massive amount of untapped silver potential that might put the country on the top of the ranking in the future.
