China's gold output rose 5.89 percent year-on-year to 360.96 tonnes in 2011, marking a record high and ranking the highest in the world for the fifth consecutive year, the China Gold Association said Tuesday.

China "made breakthroughs in exploring new gold mines" and carried out exploration activities overseas in 2011, the association said in a statement, without elaborating.

The country's top 10 gold producers accounted for 50.98 percent of the total national output last year, while the five province-level regions of Shandong, Henan, Jiangxi, Fujian and Inner Mongolia produced 59.9 percent of the national total.

Gold demand ran high as investors looked to hedge against the financial crisis in 2011, with the value of gold product transactions surging 53.45 percent year-on-year to 2.48 trillion yuan (393 billion U.S. dollars) at the Shanghai Gold Exchange, the country's major gold bourse, the association said.

The value of gold futures transactions at the Shanghai Futures Exchange reached 5.1 trillion yuan, up 178.68 percent year-on-year, it said.

China is the world's biggest gold producer and consumer. Its gold output first surpassed that of South Africa to take the top spot in the world in 2007.