M.B.A. / The South African economy places great reliance on the gold mining sector, both for employment opportunities and revenue. Due to the increased price volatility of this precious metal in international markets, the economy has been placed under enormous pressure due to the loss of jobs and lower revenues generated, particularly from the country's marginal mines. Through discussions with representatives from the various facets of the mining industry, it has been noted that a large portion of the prospective and existing gold reserves are not being mined. This may be due to the high capital investment required to start-up such an operation and the resultant dividends are not appealing enough to attract the investment. Unrest amongst unionised labour has reduced productivity in the work force and this has further increased the cost of production, placing many South African gold mines in the "red". Historically, gold mines owned all of their own equipment and bore all of the risk. For all this investment, they took all of the profit, or loss from the operation, but this increased cost of capital and risk does not bring along an increased return on investment due to the volatility in both the gold price and the currency exchange rate. The aim of the research report is to establish a framework for conducting a technoeconomic due diligence in identifying a viable alternative to the traditional methods of mining gold in South Africa. The objectives of this dissertation are: To determine the viability of conducting an alternative approach to mining gold in South Africa; To determine if the proposed alternative approach would tolerate a lower gold selling price than the present methods and still remain profitable; To determine the barriers to entry and the pitfalls of mining gold in South Africa.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:9094 |
| Date | 13 August 2012 |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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