THE market capitalisation of 31 South African mining companies grew 50% by the end of August as investors piled into gold and platinum shares, shrugging off record impairments made in a tough local operating environment and because of subdued global commodity prices since the end of 2015.The market capitalisation of the 31 stocks grew to R578bn, an increase of R192bn compared with the value of the companies at the end of June 2015, according to PwC’s SA Mine report released last week.The industry reported a record R60bn in impairments so far in 2016, bringing to R157bn the impairments made in the past five years, it said, adding this wiped out three years of capital expenditure the industry had made. "This is the first year since the start of this publication in 2009 that an aggregated net loss of R46bn was reported by the industry," the report said.Gold shares have been the outstanding feature on the JSE in 2016, with Harmony Gold by far the standout performer as its shares more th...
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