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Thursday, 26th May 2005 (7437 views)

A new report from the World Gold Council has revealed that gold mining is becoming ever more important to developing and indebted nations.<br/><br/>The report, entitled A Touch of Gold, reveals that gold output from heavily indebted countries grew by 84 per cent between 1994 and 2004, and developing countries were responsible for almost three-quarters (74 per cent) of the global gold output.<br/><br/>"The gold industry is of tremendous and growing importance to highly indebted countries," WGC chief executive James Burton told BBC News. <br/><br/>As well as providing considerable revenues for countries such as Mali and Ghana - gold accounted for more than half all the goods exported from Mali last year - mining contributes to the social and economic infrastructure, the report claims.<br/><br/>"Gold is generally associated with the rich and yet this latest report proves that, in relative terms, it is actually much more important to the poor," Mr Burton stated.<br/><br/>The WGC also called on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) not to sell its gold reserves as a way to fund debt relief for poor countries, arguing that the action could actually cause devaluation of gold, having disastrous effects on developing countries' gold mining industries.<img alt="track" src="http://directnews.dehavilland.co.uk/dn.gif?feedid=196&itemid=8595277"/>

 

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