The top two gold miners burned a record amount of fuel to produce gold in 2015. Even though Barrick and Newmont burned less overall fuel than their operations did in 2013, their consumption per ounce of gold produced was the highest ever.
This is not good news for the gold mining industry as the world has peaked in cheap oil production. While total global liquid energy production continues to be at record levels, the high-value cheap light sweet crude oil peaked several years ago. Furthermore, we are now witnessing the rapid decline of U.S. oil production as many of the shale oil fields go into terminal decline.
As shown in these next two charts, the Bakken and Eagle Ford are forecasted to be down 437,000 barrels per day (bd) from their minimum production between August 2015 and December 2015:
The production loss from these two fields will equal 160 million barrels in a year… and that’s if their production doesn’t continue to decline. Don’t worry… it will. As I have stated in several interviews, I forecast U.S. oil production to decline 30-40% from its peak in 2015, and be down 70-75% by 2025. We will also start to see declines in other oil-producing countries throughout the world.
Top Two Miners Burned The Most Fuel Ever In 2015 To Produce Gold
That’s correct, Barrick and Newmont used more liquid fuel than ever to produce an ounce of gold in 2015:
Between the two companies, they burned a total of 379 million gallons of fuel at an average 32 gallons per gold oz produced. Even though Barrick and Newmont burned more fuel in 2013 (389 million gallons), their consumption per gold ounce was less at 30.9 gallons.
Here is the breakdown of the two individual companies fuel consumption:
While Newmont’s fuel consumption fell to 30.4 gallons per oz gold (gal/oz), from its peak of 32.6 gal/oz in 2013, Barrick’s increased to a new record of 34.6 gal/oz. The combination of the two in 2015 still reached a new record of 32 gal/oz in 2015.
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