Board-Ansicht
Mix-Ansicht- 15 % rückläufige Goldproduktion in Südafrika gegenüber Vorjahr im 3. Quart. - André, 26.11.2005, 16:56
15 % rückläufige Goldproduktion in Südafrika gegenüber Vorjahr im 3. Quart.
-->Gold in Decline
EDITORIAL
November 23, 2005
Posted to the web November 23, 2005
Johannesburg
IT's a bit sad really. Just as the gold price heads for $500/oz, a level last seen in 1987, SA's mining industry reports a further steep fall in gold production. The price may be great, and with a weaker exchange rate the rand gold price is looking good too -- it's up nearly a third for the year to date. But the domestic gold industry is still in cost- and kilogram-cutting mode.
Latest Chamber of Mines figures show third-quarter gold output has fallen to 72,4 tons, more than 15% below the year-ago quarter.
That reflects the continued cutbacks producers have embarked on, particularly in the past couple of years, in a bid to hold on to profitability in the face of a stronger rand and sliding rand revenues. The margin to be earned on each ounce, not the quantity of ounces, is all that counts and unprofitable ounces have been ruthlessly stripped out in recent years. It's a capital-intensive industry that turns only very slowly and next year's output numbers are expected to look a little better, due to new projects that are due to come on stream. But the rand's fortunes tend to trend with the gold price, and even though gold's dollar price has been rising in recent weeks, so has the rand. It's possible we could get the happy combination of a strong dollar gold price and weaker rand. But no one in the gold industry is banking on it.
Gold's role in SA's economy has been shrinking for a long time now. And that trend is likely to continue. Gold exports have contracted from 51% of SA's visible exports in 1980 to 9,4% last year. Employment has fallen from 476000 to 175000 over that period. And over the past decade, gold mining's contribution to gross domestic product has more than halved, from 3,2% to 1,5%.
soweit der Auszug von
http://allafrica.com/stories/200511230158.html
Thread gesperrtgesamter Thread:
