Going for gold

摘要

Power stations are everywhere in South Africa's Mpumalanga region. Cooling towers are dotted across the horizon and huge trains delivering truck after truck of coal make their way across the plains. The area's vast coal deposits provided the country with ultra-low-cost electricity for years — something its mining industry took great advantage of as it maintained the title of largest gold producer in the world. Then, four years ago, crisis struck. Failure to build enough new power stations to keep up with demand led to countrywide rolling blackouts. The mining industry was asked to cut its energy usage by 10 per cent just as China knocked South Africa off the top spot for gold production for the first time in more than 100 years. Although the blackouts only lasted a few months, power stations are still under strain and prices are soaring — hitting the gold-mining sector particularly hard.