Moody’s ratings agency warns that regulatory uncertainty in SA, coupled with a firmer rand against the dollar, would hasten the closure of the country’s gold and platinum mines, which are already buckling under high costs. South African mining companies were increasingly looking to build or buy assets abroad, making use of their capital generated from offshore assets as their domestic operations remained under pressure from rising costs and ore bodies that were becoming more difficult and expensive to mine, Moody’s said in a note on Tuesday. “Gold and PGM (platinum group metals) miners will limit their investment in existing South African mines to sustaining capital. Without the substantial expansionary investment required to reconfigure unprofitable mining operations and make them profitable, mines will either be restructured or closed,” Moody’s said. “Earnings from South African mines are not even sufficient to meet interest and tax payments, which then have to be supplemented by ...
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