[miningmx.com] – SOUTH Africa’s four largest gold miners were operating 35% of production at a loss, said Bloomberg News citing its own data. It added that conditions may worsen amid ballooning labour and electricity costs.
“What you’re seeing in South Africa is a major margin squeeze,” Srinivasan Venkatakrishnan, CEO of AngloGold Ashanti told the newswire. “If you do nothing, the future of South African gold mining always heads towards a declining trend.”
One of the problems is an ever increasing wage bill with unions using current wage talks to ask for salary improvements well above inflation.
“The unions want to get the best deal they can,” said Graham Briggs, CEO of Harmony Gold. “But when you’ve only got so much to give, then it’s up to the union leaders to understand: Where is that point? Where is that limit?”
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