According to Surbiton, gold output for the period totalled 292 tonnes, or near 9.4 million ounces, for 2015/16, some five tonnes or two percent more than in the previous financial year. Production for the June 2016 quarter was 74 tonnes, about two tonnes or three percent greater than for the March 2016 quarter.

From 1990 to 2014, mining companies discovered some 1.66 billion ounces of gold in 217 major discoveries.

Over the same period the industry has produced 1.84 billion ounces of gold. Discoveries have not been keeping pace with production.

Significant discoveries are diminishing and the trend is accelerating.

Gold and silver miners are increasingly looking to raise or resume dividend payments, highlighting the renewed confidence in the sector driven by this year’s rise in precious metal prices.

“The amount of free cash flow the industry is generating has increased significantly in recent months,” said Jonathan Guy, analyst at Numis in London. “Gold is up and costs have been falling and so there is much more potential for companies to resume or increase dividends. The market is going to be looking for companies to deliver messages on higher payouts.”

Gold bullion prices have increased 26 percent this year and profits have risen, but the world's biggest gold miners are still paring costs and selling assets to chip away at debt rather than boosting spending.

Some investors had expected mining companies to lift spending on exploration, expansion or dividends during a largely upbeat financial reporting season, rather than keep shaving costs.

"They're still, by and large, in cost-cutting mode and hunkering down, even though conditions have improved over the last five or six months," said Jeremy Sussman, global mining analyst at Clarksons Platou Securities in New York.

With bullion up 25 percent since January, precious metals miners are once again able to raise money in the equity markets, reducing the need to obtain funds in exchange for a portion of future mine output at discounted prices.

Global gold companies have raised nearly $3.2 billion in equity, up 16.5 percent jump on the year, Thomson Reuters data shows.

Meanwhile, the value of top streaming deals fell nearly 40 percent to some $640 million in the first five months of 2016 versus 2015, Scotiabank estimates.

Notably, China's production-to-reserves ratios for gold and iron ore are 23.5% and 19.2% respectively. In comparison, global usage rates for gold and iron ore are at just 4.9% and 3.8% respectively.

There are many startling statistics in PwC's latest report into the performance of the world's 40 largest mining companies which the management consultants called a "race to the bottom".

Gold output across the globe hit an all-time high in 2015, climbing 1.8 percent to 3,211 tonnes. Much of this growth was led by Mexico, whose output increased double digits (18 percent) from 112 tonnes in 2014 to 133 tonnes last year. Indonesia grew 20 percent, Kazakhstan 29 percent.

This year, global production is expected to level out as project development budgets were slashed during the three-year gold bear market. But with gold prices rebounding, miners are in a good position to be much more profitable.

Below, explore and discover the world’s top 10 gold producing mines.

Chinese gold miners are aggressively scouting for overseas acquisitions, encouraged by historically low gold prices that could help them scoop up assets cheaply.

After all, hedging is the gold industry’s ultimate dirty word. It became such a toxic subject during the last decade that most chief executives decided that even talking about it was off limits. And New Gold is led by Randall Oliphant, who headed up Barrick Gold Corp. back when it had the biggest — and most reviled — hedge book in the business.