In 2006, the sharp rise of gold price largely held down the consumption, especially the gold jewelry. According to the statistics of GFMS, the global gold consumption in 2006 was 3906 tons, down about 5%, of which jewelry consumption amounted to 2280 tons, decreasing nearly 427 tons.

As of 2006, China's newly-increased gold ore reserve had exceeded 650 tons, and the newly-explored reserve of the gold industry had been surpassing the production and consumption reserve for consecutive years. Breakthrough has been made in exploring ore in existing mines, and the exploitation in west China has made considerable progress. In recent years, numerous foreign risk exploration companies entered into China, especially into western regions, and achieved great effect.

According to the data from National Bureau of Statistics, the top 20 gold enterprises except refineries had the gross output of 194,011 tons in 2006, accounting for over 80% of the nation's total. Besides, the production concentration degree of the companies was improved a lot, of which 5 non-ferrous metal enterprises include Jiangxi Copper Co., Ltd., Yunnan Copper Group, Daye Nonferrous Metals Company and Hunan Chenzhou Mining Group listed at the first 20 places.

During the 11th Five-Year Plan period, China's goal in gold production is: the accumulated gold output reaches 1300 tons and the newly-increased gold basic reserve amounts to 3000-3500 tons. Therefore, it is estimated that by 2010, China's gold output may be about 280-300 tons, and in the forthcoming five years, the annual growth rate of China's gold output may remain at 5% approximately.