World's largest gold producer China produced 288.2 tons of the yellow metal in the first nine months of this year.

BEIJING(BullionStreet): World's largest gold producer China produced 288.2 tons of the yellow metal in the first nine months of this year.

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said this was an increase of 11.3 percentb from same period during last year.

However, it said in September , gold production slowed down to 38.5 tons from 41.4tons in August. China became the world's largest gold producer in 2007.

Its gold output reached 360.957 tonnes in 2011, rising 5.9% on year.

China's booming gold industry reported $20 billion of gross industrial output value in 2009,an increase of 19%, compared to the previous year.

Nearly 60% of China's gold output last year came from the five producing provinces such as Shandong, Henan, Jiangxi, Fujian, and Yunnan.

The ten largest gold firms produced 149 tonnes,47.3%, of the country's total output. China had more than 700 gold producers in 2009, down from more than 1,200 firms in 2002 as the industry consolidated.

Experts expects China to overtake India as the world's largest gold consumer in 2009. Total Chinese demand is forecast to reach 432 tonnes as investors defy record bullion prices.