THE SHARP drop in gold prices during April has hit the global gold mining industry.

"There's a lot of companies out there that are not making the sort of profits they estimated they would make," Warwick Grigor, executive chairman at investment bank Canacord Genuity, told Australia's ABC News this month.

"This will put paid to a lot of new developments that were coming onstream...the chances are that you could see a few closures."

Over in Canada meantime Barrick Gold Corp, the world's biggest gold producer, announced last week that it plans to cut at least half a billion Dollars of spending on major projects this year.

At the other end of the spectrum, plans to reopen a gold mine in Scotland have been delayed following gold's price drop.

Based on London Gold Fix prices, gold fell 8% in Dollar terms over the month, the biggest monthly drop since December 2011, despite staging a recovery after touching a two-year low at $1322 an ounce.

In Euro terms gold ended the month down 10.4%, the biggest monthly fall since July 2010, while in Sterling terms it was down 10.1%. The last time gold in Sterling fell more in a calendar month was October 1990.