Coronavirus-Ignited Gold Rush Helps South Africa’s Tarnished Mines to Shine

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.

Gold has gained a quarter in value this year, hitting record highs of more than $2,000 an ounce as investors buy it as a haven asset amid the global economic turmoil of Covid-19. For South African producers, the rise has been leavened by a weaker currency, with the rand tumbling 16% against the U.S. dollar this year as the country’s struggling economy buckles further under the weight of the coronavirus pandemic. Surging profits for gold sold abroad in U.S. dollars have helped the country’s producers defy the gravity of South Africa’s worst economic contraction in at least a century, including a five-week mining shutdown from late March to May.

Coronavirus-Ignited Gold Rush Helps South Africa’s Tarnished Mines to Shine

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