Mining Weekly reports that Roger Baxter, CEO of the Chamber of Mines of SA, said on Monday that, despite SA no longer being a significant producer of gold on a global scale, gold mining remained a key part of the SA economy.  

It provided jobs for more than 112,000 people who earned R30bn a year.  He was speaking on the first day of the Mining Indaba at a function to mark the 30th anniversary of the World Gold Council (WGC) and indicated that for every mineworker, another two workers existed in other industries and there was a ten-to-one social multiplier of people who were dependent on each mineworker for their daily subsistence.   He recalled that in 1970, when SA was producing 1,000 t of gold a year, it was mining high grades of 13.7 g/t, which was necessary to break even with costs at a fixed gold price of only $35/oz.  Currently, SA is mining grades of 2 g/t and producing 138 t of gold worth some R68-billion.  Ultimately all that product is exported from SA.  “So, the tentacles of the sector are huge, and gold mining is still a key part of our economy,” Baxter said.

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