As described by the ABC News story below the decline was due to weather with the heavy rains impacting production and NOT due to a reprise of the Costello Curse.

Quarterly gold production falls
Australia’s gold production fell 7 per cent last quarter but is up about 6 per cent on the same time last year.

The Gold Production Report from Surbiton Associates reveals production for the three months to March 31, reached 65 tonnes, down five tonnes from the previous quarter.

The drop was largely due to cyclonic rains, stifling operations in both WA and the eastern states.

The managing director of the industry consultant group, Dr Sandra Close, says Kalgoorlie’s Super Pit was the largest producer for the quarter.

“It regained the top position again with 200,000 ounces, followed by Boddington at 166,000 ounces and Telfer was the third largest producer,” she said.

I hold several of the above. See discussion.

China used to be a silver exporter based on its being one of the world’s top three silver producers….. now China has become the major importer of silver Of much interest to silver investors looking to the long term almost 70% of the silver imported by China is used in manufacturing.

USGS 2011: As can be seen above Peru, Mexico and China were the top three producers…. Silver was obtained as a primary product from mines in Mexico, Peru, and Australia, in descending order of production.

Silver was also obtained as a byproduct from lead-zinc mines, copper mines, and gold mines, in descending order of production. The polymetallic ore deposits from which silver is recovered account for more than two-thirds of U.S. and world resources of silver. Most recent silver discoveries have been associated with gold occurrences; however, copper and lead-zinc occurrences that contain byproduct silver will continue to account for a significant share of future reserves and resources.

I think this bodes well for the long term silver investors as most silver is produced as a by-product of zinc/lead/gold mining and primary silver mines are relatively few as pure silver deposits aren’t abundant.

Even though Chinese silver mining witnesses significant growth and development in recent years, fueled by technological strides in exploration and an increase in production in response to steady growth in domestic and international demand China is a major global producer and consumer of silver-based brazing alloys. China has some of the world’s largest manufacturing facilities for home electronics and electrical appliances, which utilize various type of silver-based solder. China is the world’s largest producer of solar power and electronics.

Silver demand in China is soaring thanks to increasing use for industrial and jewelery purposes.
About 70% of China’s silver demand comes from the industrial sectors.
Silver is widely used in the China is the third largest producer of mined silver in the world.

China is the third largest producer of mined silver in the world.
China is top consumer of silver in the world.
Albanian_Minerals President Sahit_Muja said “Silver demand has witness a significant growth in 5 years, fueled by steady growth of silver use” http://www.pr-inside.com/china-s-net-imports-of-silver-hit-r2590259.htm Albanian_Minerals

Over the next few days I will have finished analysing Australia’s silver producers and will publish the data on www.australian-shares.com. My preliminary impression is that there are a couple of outstanding silver investments listed on our ASX.

Australian Gold Explorers have been updated to 1Q 2011.

More information

As was widely rumored IAU’s resource upgrade announcement was remarkable and has almost doubled the porphyry copper-gold resource at its Tujuh Bukit project to nearly 1 billion tonnes.

Granted the grades are very low…. but even then under usual circumstances such a large upgrade should have seen a far greater share market response…. makes me think that others share my concern re the forestry legislation… however some quite clever people are telling me that Indonesia wouldn’t take the chance of rattling market confidence by blocking this project.