Gold proved today that it's far from dead andstock indices around the world were lifted by commodities, but government taxes and worker union demands are creating major obstacles to the sector's renewed health.
Gold Fields' CEO Nick Holland claims while the euro zone crisis and gold sell-offs "are partly to blame," government's sticky fingers, resource nationalism and ongoing labour unrest are testing the quickly thinning patience of investors, Kevin Crowley reported for Bloomberg.
“Equity investors are frustrated…we’ve spent a lot of their money and given them very little back for it. They keep reminding us of that,” said Holland during a speech in Johannesburg.
Governments in Brazil, Canada, Australia, Namibia and Zimbabwe have all sought a larger share of mining sector profits in recent years, to name a few. Tanzania and Namibia are exploring "super-profit taxes" and mine nationalization is gaining political ground in South Africa as labour, government and the miners do battle to get their hands on the diminishing profits.
Read more: Inside a South African gold mine
Friday marks a year since 34 miners were shot dead by police in the South African town of Marikana in a dispute over wages.
Mine unions say there has been little improvement since then.
South Africa's economy has long been driven by mining but production has dropped over the decades.
Mark Lowen was given rare access into a gold mine to see what conditions are like and to follow the mining process.
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