When I started in the gold business in the early 1980s, South Africa was the world's leading producer of the yellow metal. Over the past four decades, the world has changed dramatically. So has the process of extracting precious metals from the crust of the earth.
Today, China is the leading producer followed by Australia, Russia, the United States, Canada, Indonesia, and Peru. South Africa has slipped to eighth place with approximately 123.5 tons of output, just ahead of Mexico, with 121.6 tons of production.
While South Africa remains the continent's leading producer of gold,