World’s deepest gold mines on a ‘cliff’ as virus curbs output
JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s gold industry output has dwindled to a fifth of its 1970s’ peak as ever-deepening shafts and higher costs take their toll. The coronavirus may pose an even bigger threat.
The pandemic jeopardizes the future of a 134-year-old industry that once employed more than half a million workers on the world’s biggest gold field. While Cyril Ramaphosa’s government has been praised for its rapid response to the health crisis, the country’s five-week lockdown and the strict conditions attached to reopening gold mines risks undermining their viability.
To ensure the social distancing needed to safeguard tens of thousands of workers in the world’s deepest mines, the nation’s gold producers will only be allowed to operate with half their normal employees. That may make them unprofitable, even as they struggle with the added burden of screening workers for virus symptoms and testing of those who display them.
Source: iol.co.za