"South Africa's woes spread well beyond its domestic miners into the global gold market, helping to hold down the world's mined gold supply last year to 2,385 tonnes, down 3.6 per cent from 2007. ... 'Most of the operations are mature and their life-of-mine is limited without developing resources below 4,000 metres,' says David Davis, senior gold analyst at Credit Suisse Standard Securities. The cost of starting such a mine from scratch 'would be prohibitive unless the gold price was, say $2,000 [an ounce]'," Tom Burgis at Financial Times, 6 February 2009.
2,385 tonnes is 76.7 million ounces at 32,151 ounces per tonne. At $900 an ounce, that's $69 billion in gross gold sales. Zimbabwe Ben can create that much money in a fortnight. Got gold? Get more!
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