It could be a golden decade for one mineral with Australian production levels at their highest peak in years, and still rising.

The latest figures say gold production has gone up seven per cent from 2012, with Australian mines producing 273 tonnes of gold last year.

It is the highest production level for gold in the last ten years.

Mining consultants and assessors Surbiton and Associates says it has been the result not of a boom, but of low prices.

Surbiton representative Jim Pollock says the low prices mean miners target higher grades and better sources.

“When the price goes up companies can treat lower grade ore and still make a reasonable profit, but when the prices go down the reverse is the same and companies have to actually mine higher grade ore to maintain the same profits,” he said.

“Therefore the amount of gold they produce goes up and their cash costs go down.”

Mr Pollock says it has been a pretty hectic period in the gold sector.

“There's been quite a bit of movement on the mergers and acquisitions front as it were,” he said.

“We had Barrick selling down a lot of its operations, some of those were taken up by other overseas companies, some were taken up by Australian companies.

“I think following the period of subdued gold prices some of the overseas companies have decided to pull their horns in a little bit, sell their Australian operations, and look for better prospects elsewhere.

“WA has been the mainstay for Australia gold production. It still produces about 70-75 per cent of all of Australia's gold.”

The company will produce another report in three months, but Mr Pollock said he would not try to predict what it will say.

“First of all, you've got a quarter of the year where it's a short quarter it's only 90 days long, compared with the December quarter which is 92 days long and even though it's only two days shorter that's the equivalent, in overall production terms, of about one and a half tonnes of gold,” he said.

“The rain has been a problem - we usually get cyclones in the March quarter, the first quarter of the year and those can absolutely wreak havoc on some operations.”