May Gold Output Down 2%

Gold output reached 28.312 tons in May, down 2 percent from April, according to data released July 2 by Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Daily production in May was 5.9 percent lower than that in April.

In the first five months, the aggregate output was 127.342 tons, up 5.91 percent from the same period in 2009.

Output by five biggest producers, including China National Gold Group Corporation, accounted for 39.07 percent of national output.

Gold output in 2010 is expected to surpass last year's output of 313.9 tons, according to Zhang Bingnan, deputy director of China Gold Association.

China, the third largest gold consumer, has been the world's largest gold producer in the past three years. China's output accounts for about 13 percent of the world's total.