Pan African to shut costly Evander mine
The closure will result in 1,600 job cuts, with the producer’s future in its tailings retreatment project
Pan African Resources succumbed to a sustained low rand gold price, shutting its underground mine at Evander, cutting 1,600 people in a sector bleeding jobs and metal output. The profit margins at SA’s gold mines are paper thin and with the gold price at about R500,000/kg, the likelihood is growing that other companies will bring forward mine closures and job cuts. The gold industry employed 112,000 people in 2017, down by 68,000 in 13 years, with 4,000 of those jobs lost in the past two years. Overall, SA’s mining sector has lost 30,000 jobs since 2014. The fall in gold output from the 120-year-old industry has been precipitous, plunging to 138 tonnes in 2017 and sixth place in world rankings, down from 1,000 tonnes in 1970, when SA was the dominant force in global gold production. SA’s mines are old and deep, with falling grades and rising costs caused by above-inflation wage increases and electricity tariff hikes. Two big gold companies, AngloGold Ashanti and Gold Fields, have cu...
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