a Revised figures will be given in the report for 1920.
Estimates
have been made for the years from 1914 to 1919 for some foreign
countries that produce comparatively small quantities of gold, because
of the difficulty of obtaining accurate statistics since the beginning
of the World War. For a few other countries, because of lack of basis
for estimates, the figures for preceding years have been repeated. The
statistics for 1913 to 1919, inclusive, were mainly adjusted in
conference between the Mint and the Geological Survey.
The
notable increase of total world's output of gold culminated in a record
of $468,724,918 in 1915. There has been a steady yearly decrease since
1915, and the output in 1919 was $103,559,000 less than that of 1915.
The
present tendency, in the absence of discovery and developÂment on a
large scale of new gold fields, is toward a declining world's output of
new gold; and this tendency is accentuated by the high cost of labor
and supplies, which makes the operation of many gold mines
unprofitable. There was another decrease in the world's output in 1920,
although the production of Canada and some South American countries
increased. These small increases, however, were more than offset by
large decreases in the United States and Australia.
