Australia May Boost Gold Output 17% Over 4 Years, Bureau Says

By Rebecca Keenan

March 3 (Bloomberg) -- Gold output in Australia, the world’s third-largest producer, will increase 17 percent during the next four years as investors boost purchases amid the global recession.

Output is forecast at 264 metric tons in the year ending June 30, 2012, the Canberra-based Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics said today. Output this fiscal year may 225 tons, the bureau said.

Gold, the best-performing metal in 2008, was one of only four commodities to rise when the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index fell 36 percent, the worst year in a half-century. Demand for gold bars, coins and other physical products this year has been strong, the bureau said, pushing the price up 8 percent.

Australian gold exports are forecast to rise 59 percent to A$17.3 billion ($11 billion) in the year ending June 30, after increases in output and prices, the bureau said. Gold for immediate deliveries may average $910 an ounce this year and $940 an ounce the following year, it said.

Global output of gold may increase 3 percent this year to 2,464 tons, the bureau said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Rebecca Keenan in Melbourne at rkeenan5@bloomberg.net