MOSCOW (Commodity Online) : Russian Gold Industrialists Union on Thursday said the country will produce 11.1 percent more gold this year than in 2008.

In a statement issued here the industry lobby raised its forecast for 2009 output of the metal to 205 tones from a previous estimate of 190 tones.

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The launch of several new mines in eastern Russia will enable the country, which ranked fifth among the world's gold miners last year, to boost production faster than previously expected, it said.

The 205-tonne forecast is equivalent to 6.59 million ounces.

The union attributed the forecast increase to the first full year of production at Canadian miner Kinross Gold Corp's Kupol mine in the remote Chukotka region, as well as the Karalveyem mine in the same region.

The union said several other mines would also boost the total, including Petropavlovsk 's Pokrovsky and High River Gold 's Berezitovy mines, both in the Amur region.

The Sovrudnik firm operating in the Krasnoyarsk region, as well as the Aginskoye project run by Kamgold on the far eastern peninsula of Kamchatka, would also contribute, it said.

Russia produced about 8 percent of the world's gold last year and plans to significantly increase this share by developing reserves that are second only to South Africa's.

The union said it expected output from mines and placers to rise by 10.9 percent to 181.8 tonnes this year, output of gold as a by-product of other metals by 20.4 percent to 15 tonnes and gold refined from scrap by less than 1 percent to 8.2 tonnes.

Russia boosted gold output to 184.49 tonnes in 2008 after five consecutive years of decline.