Gold Metal Chain™
· ₹14,829.00/g today
From mine to market: how Gold moves through the global economy.
Data year: 2025 · Chain data last reviewed: 9 September 2026 · not a live feed — see methodology.
How Gold Moves Through the Economy
Each stage below is a real, cited figure — click any stage for its full description and source.
Mining Mining / Extraction
Gold ore is mined and processed on-site into concentrate or doré (an unrefined gold-silver alloy bar).
China is the single largest gold-mining country, producing an estimated 11.5% of the world's mined gold — mine supply is comparatively diversified, with no single country dominating. Concentration: Low
High confidenceSource: USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries (via MetalsCost Metal Reserves) (2025)
Refining Processing / Refining
Doré and recycled gold are refined into 99.99% pure fine gold bars meeting London Good Delivery standards.
Swiss refineries are estimated to process 65-70% of the world's newly mined and recycled gold — refining is dramatically more concentrated than mining. Concentration: High
Medium confidenceSource: BullionStar / Swissinfo analysis of GFMS refinery data — view (2025)
Jewellery, Investment & Technology Manufacturing / End Use
Fine gold is cast into bullion bars and coins, alloyed and worked into jewellery, or used in electronics for its conductivity and corrosion resistance.
Jewellery is the largest single demand sector at 38% of 2024 global demand; the remainder splits across Investment (bar, coin & ETF) (35%), Central Banks (21%), Technology (6%). Concentration: Moderate
High confidenceSource: World Gold Council, Gold Demand Trends — Full Year 2024 — view (2024)
Secondary Supply (Recycling) Secondary Supply (Recycling)
Old jewellery, bars and industrial scrap are collected and refined back into fine gold — one of the few metals where almost all recycled material is genuinely recoverable at high purity.
Recycled gold supplied an estimated 27.5% of total 2024 gold supply (1,370 of 4,974 tonnes), the highest recycling volume since 2012. Concentration: Moderate
High confidenceSource: World Gold Council, Gold Demand Trends — Full Year 2024 — view (2024)
Supply Chain at a Glance
Current Bottleneck
Refining is significantly more concentrated than Mining: Switzerland accounts for 67%, versus China's 11.5% of Mining.
This is a plain comparison of two real, cited concentration figures — not a synthetic weighted risk score. See how this is determined.
Three Buyers, One Price
Gold demand splits fairly evenly across jewellery, investment (bars, coins, ETFs) and central-bank reserves — a mix no other metal on this site has. That's part of why gold tends to hold value when currencies, stocks and industrial metals are all falling at once: at least one of those three buyer groups is usually still buying.
Mined in a Few Places, Wanted Everywhere
China and South Africa built entire mining eras around gold, and Australia and Canada remain top-tier exporters today — but none of that production stays local. Gold moves through Swiss refineries and London vaults before ending up in an Indian wedding box or a central-bank basement half a world from where it was dug up.
Almost Nothing Is Ever Destroyed
Nearly all the gold ever mined still exists somewhere — melted down, reshaped and resold, but essentially never consumed the way oil or even copper is. Recycled gold (mostly old jewellery) supplies a meaningful share of annual market demand alongside freshly mined metal, which is part of why gold's total "above-ground stock" — everything ever mined, sitting in vaults, jewellery boxes and central banks — dwarfs any single year's new mine production.
Did You Know?
Central banks turned into significant net buyers of gold over the past few years, after decades of mostly selling — a genuine shift in who shows up on the demand side of this market.
Frequently Asked Questions
China is the single largest gold-producing country, accounting for an estimated 11.5% of world mine production. See the full country-by-country breakdown.
Refining is significantly more concentrated than Mining: Switzerland accounts for 67%, versus China's 11.5% of Mining.
An estimated 27.5% — Recycled gold supplied an estimated 27.5% of total 2024 gold supply (1,370 of 4,974 tonnes), the highest recycling volume since 2012.
The Gold price in India today is ₹14,829.00 per gram as of October 16, 2026. See the live price and chart.
Metal Chain™ is an analytical framework developed by MetalsCost. Concentration figures and the current-bottleneck comparison are estimates derived from available public data and a documented methodology — they are not investment advice or a guaranteed forecast. See the methodology page for data sources and calculation details.
