It will not be surprising if the gains by silver outpaced those of gold, not only as the usual result of lower liquidity, but also as the memories of painful losses in early 2011 continue to fade, precious metals consultancy Thomson Reuters GFMS executive chairperson Philip Klapwijk said in November last year.

Klapwijk will be a featured speaker at the 2013 Investing in African Mining Indaba, taking place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre from February 4 to 7.

He will provide an outlook on gold in 2013 and a review of the industry in 2012.

In November, he stated that the rejuvenated gold market, along with ongoing monetary loosening, persistent ultralow short-term interest rates and rising fears about high inflation in the long run, rekindled investors’ interest in silver.

This forecast was further outlined in the South African gold mining industry. After lowering their production forecast for 2012 by 200 000 oz, owing to wildcat strikes, a fire and operational problems, executives at gold producer Gold Fields warned in November that the gold industry in South Africa will no longer exist in five years if conditions changed dramatically.

The gold price, hovering below R498 000/kg, is the highest it has been, but South African gold producers are losing out on the boom as production is only slowly starting to ramp up after the strikes in the latter half of last year.

Gold companies are facing soaring costs and stagnant, if not falling, productivity levels.

Chamber of Mines CEO Bheki Sibiya said in November that thousands of miners would be laid off early this year, possibly more than 10 000.

Mining companies have been warning that the spate of wildcat strikes at platinum, gold, chrome and iron-ore mines since August last year will force a downsizing of their workforces.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported in January that it was not all doom and gloom in the gold mining sector. Canadian gold producer Goldcorp expects gold production to rise by about 10% to between 2.55-million and 2.80-million ounces this year.

The company also raised its yearly dividend by 11% to $0.61 a share.

“We expect to deliver meaningful production growth in 2013, driven by solid performance expected throughout the portfolio, as well as the ramp-up in production at the Pueblo Viejo joint venture in the Dominican Republic,” Goldcorp said in a statement.

“Production is expected to build in the second half of the year,” it added.
The company said it was working with Chilean auth-orities to fix deficiencies at its stalled $3.9-billion El Morro copper/gold project, including advancing the consultation process.

Chile’s Supreme Court upheld the suspension of an environmental permit for El Morro in April 2012, in one of the biggest legal blows to a mine in the country. An appeals court had rejected the permit at the request of an indigenous agricultural community.

Goldcorp CE Chuck Jeannes told Reuters in November last year that he hoped the mine would receive a new permit within the next year. The mine had previously been expected to begin production in 2017.

The company said it expected five-year cash costs to remain below C$500/oz.

Goldcorp produced 696 700 oz of gold in the fourth quarter of 2012.