China, the world's largest gold producer, registered a total output of 223.08 tons of gold in the first 10 months of this year, up 3.32 percent from a year earlier, official statistics showed.

Gold producers nationwide churned out 100.46 billion yuan (US$14.67 billion) of revenue, jumping 76.56 percent year-on-year, thanks to soaring global gold prices this year, according to figures released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

The country produced 24 tons of gold in October.

Shandong province, which accounts for 20.6 percent of the country's total gold output, is the largest gold producer in China, followed by Henan and Fujian provinces, which account for 10.86 percent and 8 percent of the nation's output respectively.

(China Daily December 10, 2008)