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Tuesday, 29th November 2005 (5584 views)

The South African minerals and energy minister has launched a scheme worth nearly £9.5 million in an effort to assist the gold manufacturing jewellery industry.

Lindiwe Hendricks has launched the initiative so as to counteract what she described as "the current high cost of financing gold working capital" in South Africa.

She explained that this high cost, and the previous absence of government action regarding the issue were to blame for the fact that South Africa produces 14 per cent of the world's gold but that only four per cent was put to use locally.

Ms Hendricks commented: "We therefore hope that this initiative will facilitate an increase in output of the South African gold jewellery manufacturing sector, and improve their ability to compete on an equal footing with other international jewellery manufacturing economies."

She also identified as a problem the dearth of a considerable skills base of employees who could eventually form their own enterprises, and said that the remedy lay in the efforts of the sector's existing players to train new entrants.

The scheme correlates with the government's policies on beneficiation, and was created by defence companies SAAB and BAE Systems in conjunction with gold mining companies AngloGold Ashanti and Gold Fields.

 

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