During the 2001–2008 commodities boom, South Africa’s mining sector shrank by 1% a year, while the world’s top 20 mining countries achieved an average growth rate of 5% a year, according to South Africa’s Chamber of Mines. Much of this decline is due to a dramatic drop in gold production, which has halved in the last 10 years. But policy uncertainty, regulations and infrastructure are also to blame. J. Brooks Spector examines how South Africa fell off the commodities cliff. South Africa’s extraordinary mineral wealth has been the core of its economy since 1867, when diamonds were discovered on a…
