In a sector bedevilled by protracted industrial action, and a lack of new discoveries and investment, as well as ever deeper and ever declining orebodies, gold tailings retreatment operations have demonstrated better resilience and attracted more investor interest than traditional operations, 71% of which were either marginal or loss-making in 2018, according to Minerals Council South Africa. In addition to the council’s concern around the new tariffs exacerbating the sector’s ballooning administered costs, it also points out that since 2007, jobs in the gold sector have declined by nearly 40%. Further, there have been no new deep-level gold mines built since 2003, and South Africa’s gold production has consistently declined over the last decade.
