PEAK GOLD HITS SOUTH AFRICA: 36 000 tons of gold reserves more likely to be 6000 tons - make that 2900 tons

The cost of electricity, together with environmental problems like water pollution and illegal mining activities, may already overshadow the value of the country's unworked gold.

SHOOT: This is analogous to 'Peak Oil'. Overstate your reserves, attract massive investment, greed above honesty. When the shock hits - massive unemployment, instability, but someone walks away with a packet full of dosh.

clipped from www.fin24.com Johannesburg - South Africa has far less gold in reserve than government and the Chamber of Mines believe. The gold industry has already removed 95% of the extractable gold, claims a recent research article in a local professional journal. Although the gold sector is well known to be irrevocably on the decline, it's now being said that its residual value is less than half of that generally accepted. Official sources in South Africa regularly mention the figure of 36 000 tons - still representing the world's largest reserve. This figure has been touted since 2001, even though 2 500 tons of the metal has since been extracted. A much smaller mineable reserve of about 6 000 tons is generally accepted, which means that most South African gold mines will close within two decades. He calculates that a figure of 2 948 tons in South African soil is more feasible. On this basis South Africa has only the fourth largest reserves, behind Australia, Peru and Russia.