SOUTH African gold production is this calendar year is expected to fall below 400 tons, miner Gold Fields said on Tuesday. Gold Fields chairman Chris Thompson said declining ore grades in South African mines are behind the decline. He said South Africa’s market share of world gold production has declined to about 20%.
“Falling grades are principally the problem, not so much in the last two years, but in 1970 the average grade in the industry was 15,9 grams [of gold per ton],” he said.South Africa production peaked in the early 1970s at about 1000 tons a year, but by 1998 had fallen to 473,8 tons.