<P> Gold mining is the resource extraction of gold by mining . </P> <P> As of 2016, the world's largest gold producer was China with 463.7 tonnes . The second - largest producer, Australia, mined 287.3 tonnes in the same year, followed by Russia with 274.4 tonnes . </P> <P> It is impossible to know the exact date that humans first began to mine gold, but some of the oldest known gold artifacts were found in the Varna Necropolis in Bulgaria . The graves of the necropolis were built between 4700 and 4200 BC, indicating that gold mining could be at least 7000 years old . A group of German and Georgian archaeologists claims the Sakdrisi site in southern Georgia, dating to the 3rd or 4th millennium BC, may be the world's oldest known gold mine . </P>

Where is most of the world's gold mined