<P> US gold production greatly increased during the 1980s, due to high gold prices and the use of heap leaching to recover gold from disseminated low - grade deposits in Nevada and other states . </P> <P> In 2016 the United States produced 209 tonnes of gold, worth about US $8.5 billion, and 6.7% of world production, making it the fourth - largest gold - producing nation, behind China, Australia and Russia . Most gold produced today in the US comes from large open - pit heap leach mines in the state of Nevada . The US is a net exporter of gold . </P> <P> Gold was discovered in Alabama about 1830, shortly following the Georgia Gold Rush . The principal districts were the Arbacoochee district in Cleburne County, mostly from placer deposits, and the Hog Mountain district in Tallapoosa County, which produced 24,000 troy ounces (750 kg) from veins in schist . </P> <P> Russian explorers discovered placer gold in the Kenai River in 1848, but no gold was produced . Gold mining started in 1870 from placers southeast of Juneau . Alaska produced a total of 40,300,000 troy ounces (1,250,000 kg) of gold from 1880 through the end of 2007 . In 2015 Alaskan mines produced 873,984 troy ounces (27,183.9 kg) of gold, 12.7% of US production . The largest gold producer is the Fort Knox mine, a large open pit and cyanide leaching operation in the Fairbanks mining district . Fort Knox produced 401,553 troy ounces (12,489.7 kg) of gold in 2015 . The Pogo mine (283,000 ounces) and Kensington mine (128,865 ounces) gold mines and the Greens Creek polymetallic mine (60,566 ounces) accounted for the remainder of 2015 gold production . </P>

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