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Picture: 123RF
Picture: 123RF

If our government really wants to “grow the economy”, “create jobs” and prevent the destruction of Gauteng’s “economic powerhouse”, it can start by revitalising the gold mining industry.

Whereas China’s new Wangu mine boasts total mineable reserves of 1,000 tonnes, the Witwatersrand gold fields were refining 1,000 tonnes a year well into the 1970s, and are said to have produced a third of all gold ever mined.

With more than 50,000 tonnes extracted since 1886, it is estimated that about 40,000 tonnes are still underground. The industry’s decline was due to a toxic mix of low gold prices, increasing costs, union problems, BEE, asset stripping and government interference.

Lower levels of trust in fiat currencies, coupled with geopolitical uncertainty, are driving the Brics central banks to once again back their currencies with gold. If the West is forced in the same direction — and probably even if it isn’t — the gold price, already 10 times higher than lows of the 1990s, could still surprise on the upside. Some derelict mine shafts could be reconditioned, slimes dams might be worth reprocessing. The right skills are still available and labour isn’t exactly scarce.

Gold mining used to be the foundation of the SA economy. It could be again. The only commitment required from the government would be to scrap BEE, impose minimal regulations, control the unions and let private business get on with it. In no time flat Gauteng would boom again.

James Cunningham
Camps Bay

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