Gold update10 Apr 2018 01:31
China produced an estimated 420.5 metric tons of gold last year, according to the World Gold Council. Yet, over the same period, Chinese demand for gold rose by 4% to 953.3 metric tons.
Now, before you start thinking this is all about China, it�s not.......
As I said, China is the world�s top gold producer, which makes it especially important. But other major producers are cutting back too........
Before China took the top spot, South Africa was the world�s most prolific gold-mining country.
In the 1880s, the discovery of gold in South Africa�s Witwatersrand Basin (Responsible for more than 40% of all gold ever mined in human history!) transformed Johannesburg into one of the world�s largest and most populous cities.
To this day, South Africa�s economy is the most advanced and stable in sub-Saharan Africa, all thanks to gold.
But now, it�s running out and miners are fleeing. The country produced just 167.1 metric tons in 2016, an 83% plunge from the 1970 peak of more than 1,000 metric tons....................