South Africa’s well-being
Overview of the mining industry in South Africa
South Africa has rich mineral resources. In the mining of gold, diamonds, metals of the platinum group, manganese and chrome ores, as well as coal mining, South Africa is one of the world‘s leading countries. However, since 2007 mining activity has been on the wane, causing a decline in the country‘s economic growth from above 5% to 3.1% in 2008. The poor power supply system bears part of the blame for this. In addition, the equipment at a number of mines is obsolete, the ores have to be mined at increasingly greater depths and the cost of mining is rising as a consequence of higher safety standards and wages. It is feared that in 2009 over 50 000 jobs will be lost in the mining industry. On the other hand, some mining companies have achieved above-average results in recent years and have improved their business figures. This report gives an overview of South Africa‘s mining industry, discusses the developments of recent years and provides information about the most important
companies.
1 Development of the mining industry
For a long time, South Africa enjoyed a booming economy. However, growth weakened considerably at the start of 2009 and the country has entered a recession for the first time in 17 years. Above all, the country‘s exports, employment and domestic demand have declined perceptibly and the deficit on current account and inflation rate have increased. Instead of the hoped-for additional jobs and improvement in living conditions of the poor majority of the population that had been promised by the new government of Jacob Zuma, the opposite seems more realistic...
