PRESIDENTIAL-ADDRESS - WITWATERSRAND GOLD - QUO-VADIS

Gold mining has been undertaken in South Africa for more than a centur y. A great proportion of that mining has been from the Witwatersrand B asin; a geological phenomenon that has few parallels throughout the wo rld. It has produced some 47 000 tomes of gold mainly from underground mines, many of which have been truly world-class gold mines. The gold mines of the Witwatersrand Basin have dominated world gold production from their inception and their production has been one of the corners tones of the development of South Africa as a whole. The mines have so me very specific characteristics; their sheer size, the depth of extra ction, the nature of the orebodies, and their labour-intensive methods . The mines have also been part of the Mining House concept-a concept unique to South Africa. South African production has declined from a m aximum of 1000 tonnes in 1970 to 470 tonnes in 1997. This, as a percen tage of western world production, has declined from a maximum of 79 pe r cent (in 1970) to 21 per cent of world production (in 1997). The nin eties have seen South Africa and its mining companies move onto the wo rld stage and face the harsh realities of having to compete in all sph eres of business with their aggressive counterparts principally in Aus tralia, Canada and the USA. The fight is for investment funds with the owners looking for the best returns on their money. In his address Ro ger Dixon will examine the current situation in the gold mining indust ry and examine the competitiveness of the mines of the Witwatersrand B asin compared with their peers worldwide. He will also discuss some of the fundamental challenges facing South African gold mines in the are as of legislation, technology, industrial relations, and health and sa fety. The environment in which the mines operate has changed radically in recent years and their ability to respond to these; challenges wil l determine their future existence.