THE Perth Mint was forced to suspend new orders for gold coins in December and January because it could not keep up with surging demand from overseas.

The mint's treasurer said there was no doubt people were seeking the safe haven of gold, rather than the turbulent share market, amid the global financial crisis, The Australian reported.

"We're exporting more than ever," Nigel Moffatt said. "The supply of gold coins, not just from us but on a global basis, could not meet global demand.

"So in common with all the other major mints around the world who produce collector gold coins -- the US Mint, the Royal Canadian Mint, the Austrian Mint -- demand exceeded supply by a considerable margin.

"We actually suspended additional coin orders because we had so many there that we wanted to catch up on the backlog."

Mr Moffatt said this might help explain why Australia recorded a whopping 55 per cent increase in gold exports in February, which in turn was the main reason for a 4per cent bounce in total exports that month.

"We came back on again with a vengeance in February," he said. "So part of this jump in figures would certainly be because we were re-exporting gold coin again in large volumes."

The Perth Mint is also a 40 per cent shareholder in the city's AGR Matthey refinery, which produces 400-ounce gold bars for export to London's gold market.

Mr Moffatt said the refinery was running at "very high capacity" and was likely at least to equal last year's production of 400 tonnes of gold.

The increased demand is reflected in major expansion moves by gold miners around the country. In January, Kalgoorlie's famous Super Pit, the largest open-cut goldmine in Australia, was given conditional state approval to expand further and add another 10 years to its working life.

Newmont Asia Pacific is due to start a major new operation at Boddington, 130km southeast of Perth, in the middle of the year.

The export figures were not the full story because they did not take into account the mint's depository, which allows clients to open an account and buy gold that remains in Australia. Sixty per cent of those accounts are held by clients from overseas; of those, 60 per cent are American.

Mr Moffatt said the depository was turning over volumes of gold worth well over $2.5 billion and had doubled its business in the past 18 months.

"This is very much a barometer of people's views towards gold," he said.

"In very recent times, we have seen a large influx of investors and indeed of management funds, superannuation funds coming into it in very large amounts."