LIMA, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- Peru maintained its position as Latin America's leading gold producer and the world's sixth largest in 2017, producing 151 tons of gold last year, the National Society of Mining, Petroleum and Energy (SNMPE) announced Tuesday.

According to the data, the largest gold production came from the northern regions of La Libertad and Cajamarca, with 43 and 33 tons respectively, followed by the southern regions of Arequipa and Ayacucho, with 20 and 12 tons each.

In the case of silver, Peru was the second-largest global producer last year, right behind Mexico, with a total production of 4,304 tons.

Peru is known as a large-scale metals producer and over 60 percent of its exports come from the mining industry. In the first eight months of 2017, mining exports totalled 16.698 billion U.S. dollars, up 24 percent year-on-year.

Meanwhile, its copper exports totalled 8.252 billion dollars in the first eight months of 2017, and gold exports reached 5.164 billion dollars, up 35 and 7 percent respectively from the same period in 2016.