I was just reading a BBC article on the South African gold mining industry when I stumbled across a metric I had never heard quoted before:
Much of the easily accessible gold has already been taken out of the ground. That which lies in the deeper reefs is becoming increasingly costly and dangerous to get at.
In addition to this, over the past five years, wages have increased by an average of 12.3% per year, compared with an average inflation rate of 5.9%.
During the same time, gold production fell by 21%. Last year, the average worker produced 1.18kg of gold. In 2007, that figure was 1.49kg.
I thought I would do some math on that figure. It turns out that on average it takes a miner 10 days of hard labour down a super heated hell hole to produce just 1oz of pure gold. 365 / (1.18 x 32.15) = 9.62
A 400oz good delivery bar equates to 11 years labour. (400 x 10) / 365 = 10.96
I hope you appreciate your gold even more now.
Much of the easily accessible gold has already been taken out of the ground. That which lies in the deeper reefs is becoming increasingly costly and dangerous to get at.
In addition to this, over the past five years, wages have increased by an average of 12.3% per year, compared with an average inflation rate of 5.9%.
During the same time, gold production fell by 21%. Last year, the average worker produced 1.18kg of gold. In 2007, that figure was 1.49kg.
I thought I would do some math on that figure. It turns out that on average it takes a miner 10 days of hard labour down a super heated hell hole to produce just 1oz of pure gold. 365 / (1.18 x 32.15) = 9.62
A 400oz good delivery bar equates to 11 years labour. (400 x 10) / 365 = 10.96
I hope you appreciate your gold even more now.
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