Xinjiang gold shines in 2013

Gold production in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region rose by 21 percent last year, the regional gold administration said Saturday.

In 2013, Xinjiang's gold output totaled 17.1 tonnes, yielding nearly 4.7 billion yuan (760 million U.S. dollars) of revenue, the administration said in a press release.

Gold output in Xinjiang has grown for 10 consecutive years, with a number of new discoveries and mines, and will continue to rise this year to as much as 20 tonnes.

In the first quarter alone, 2.14 tonnes were extracted, up 22.5 percent from the same period of last year. Q1 data was much higher than expected, as many mines suspended production during the winter.

Xinjiang is one of China's top gold producing regions, and has reserves estimated at around 200 tonnes across 600 different sites. Gold output from Xinjiang makes up about 4 percent of China's total output.

Last year, China's total gold production reached 428 tonnes, but consumption topped 1,000 tonnes.