JOHANNESBURG—The glory days of South Africa’s gold industry are long gone, but record prices on the international market for the metal combined with a weak local currency have thrown a lifeline to the country’s remaining producers. These dynamics have combined to slow, at least for now, the long decline of South Africa’s storied gold-mining sector, which has churned out nearly half the gold bullion and jewelry ever produced. Two companies now account for more than half of South Africa’s gold production— Sibanye-Stillwater Ltd., which was spun off in 2013 with three aging South African mines held by Gold Fields Ltd., and Harmony Gold Mining Co., which has grown via acquisitions to become South Africa’s largest gold mining company. 3 gold miner, said in February that it would sell its remaining South African assets to Harmony and exit the country where it was founded—as part of Anglo American PLC—by Ernest Oppenheimer in 1917. Gold Fields, a company founded by colonial pioneer Cecil John Rhodes, has just one remaining mine in South Africa.

Source: Wall Street Journal September 12, 2020 13:39 UTC