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This was a weighted average of all gold shares traded on the JSE until the index was discontinued on 23rd March 2021 and the constituent shares folded into the JSE Precious Metals and Mining index (JS5513). The South African economy has been built on the exploitation of its mineral wealth - and gold was predominant until about 1970. In 1970, South Africa produced 1000 tons of gold - which was more than the rest of the world's total gold production. Since that time, gold production in South Africa has shrunk. The ore bodies have become much deeper and more expensive to access and the gold price has been under pressure because world inflation rates have been much lower. In 1994, when the ANC came to power, South Africa produced 583 tons of gold and the industry employed over 390 000 people directly. By 2017, production had shrunk to a measly 138 tons - which made South Africa the world's 8th largest producer and the industry employed just over 110 000 people. Aggressive union action and legislative uncertainty were partly to blame for this. Neal Froneman, CEO of South Africa's largest gold producer, has indicated that until there is certainty in the legal structure of the gold industry, he will not invest further into this country. The other mining houses, like Anglogold Ashanti and Goldfields have reduced their exposure to South Africa to single mines which now only account for 10% or less of their world production. So the industry is dying and unless there is a major technological breakthrough, the gold industry in this country will continue to decline. And this is ironical since South Africa still has about 40% of the world's known underground reserves of gold - but it is just too deep to be economic with current technologies and South Africa's average cost of production is over $1000 per ounce - almost 20% above the world average.

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