Gold output up

CHINA produced 145 tons of gold in the first seven months of the year, up 15.4 percent over the same period last year and the biggest growth in the past decade, the China Gold Association reported.

The county's gold industry produced 240 tons of gold and raked in a profit of 6.1 billion yuan (US$763 million) last year, according to a report released this week at a forum in Zhaoyuan, a well-known gold producing area in eastern Shandong Province.