Gold production has already peaked, analysts and miners say

The world's production of gold was set to break a seven-year string of increases in 2016, due to a lack of new assets and falling grade ores, the Financial Times said citing analysts and industry executives.

According to Thomson Reuters’ GFMS metals research team total production of the yellow metal was set to decline by 3% in the year ahead, following a 1% increase in gold mine production to 3,155 tonnes in 2015.

In remarks to the newspaper, Kelvin Dushnisky, the president of Barrick Gold, added a lack of new developments and extended project development timelines to the list of factors that in his opinion were bullish for gold’s medium and long-term price outlook.

Supplies of gold were set to drop by between 15% to 20% over the next three to four years, Vitaly Nesis, the chief executive at Polymetal told the FT.

Nesis said he expected to see the first signs of a recovery, on the back of reduced supplies, in the second half of 2016.

As of 08:48 COMEX gold futures for delivery in February were down by 0.17% to $1,088.90 per ounce.