TSX Group, the Toronto stock exchange operator has joined forces with Standard & Poor's to create a real-time global gold index that will track gold mining companies around the world.

The Toronto-based S&P/TSX Global Gold Index will launch by the end of this year.

Canada is home to 60 per cent of the world's listed gold mining firms and it is also where most of the mining analyst community resides, making it the obvious place to set up the new exchange.

TSX Group exchanges have become one of the world's leading markets for raising equity capital for mining.

Standard & Poor's said the new index will be broadly representative of the investment opportunities available in the global gold marketplace.