Gold Mining in South Africa

During the 1970s, South Africa had an average of one thousand tones being produced per year. By 1985, production had fallen to under seven hundred tones, and by the early twenty-first century, to under four-hundred tones per year. Other gold producing nations, most notably the United States, Australia, and China, have stepped in to pick up the slack. Some experts project the United States will overtake South Africa in gold production before the decade is finished. Other people disagree, citing stiff environmental laws in the United States.