All the government needs to do is scrap BEE, impose minimal regulations and control unions
14 January 2025 - 16:28
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
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
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
LETTER: Gold can make SA shine again
All the government needs to do is scrap BEE, impose minimal regulations and control unions
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
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
Gold benefits from Trump policy uncertainty
Gold on track for best week since mid-November
Gold on track for best year in over a decade
Eyes on Fed and Trump’s 2025 policies as gold set for weekly rise
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Most Read
Related Articles
LETTER: BEE benefited the well-connected few
GREG BECKER: Is BEE effective social justice?
EDITORIAL: Wait and see as another fantastical fund announced
Top law firm fights SA’s new legal sector transformation policy
LETTER: Impediments to growth
LETTER: Why there’s no hope for the economy
LETTER: Odds are against SMMEs
Published by Arena Holdings and distributed with the Financial Mail on the last Thursday of every month except December and January.