No one has more to lose from gold’s bear market than South African producers as workers digging in the world’s deepest, costliest mines threaten to bring them to a standstill unless pay is more than doubled.
Today the metal slipped to as low as $1,245 an ounce, a record quarterly drop and below production and capital spending expenses at Sibanye Gold Ltd., Harmony Gold Mining Co. and Gold Fields Ltd., figures compiled by Bloomberg show. Harmony’s South African output costs are the highest of the world’s 12 biggest producers by volume, according to Bloomberg Industries.
