THE sliding rand is a double-edged sword for mining companies in SA, with cost inflation, wage claims and potential labour unrest outweighing the gains exporters traditionally derive from domestic currency weakness.The drop in the rand, which is at near-13-year lows against the dollar, should benefit diversified mining giants such as Anglo American, BHP Billiton and Glencore as well as domestic companies such as gold producers Gold Fields and AngloGold Ashanti.The rand has lost 7% so far this year against the dollar, which has risen against emerging market currencies across the board on expectations of US rate hikes. The flip side of this is that the rand gold price has increased more than 4% this year even as the spot gold price in dollars has fallen 2.5%.That is good news for mining companies in the country, which benefit from mostly cheaper costs and higher income from sales of their commodities.However, those gains may evaporate in the face of inflationary pressures which are po...
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