South Africa’s contribution to global gold production has decreased from 67.7% in 1970 to 7.7% in 2009, partly due to rising production costs related to ever-increasing mining depths.
South African mining cost competitiveness is also heavily impacted by the Rand Dollar exchange rate. As the Rand strengthened from R10.52:$1 in 2002 to R6.45:$1 in 2004, almost all South African gold mines moved above the global median level cost of production.
