South African gold industry on "deathwatch"

Despite claims of massive below ground reserves, researchers say that South Africa's gold industry is on deathwatch, with its goldfields nearly 95 percent exhausted and production rates set to fall permanently below 100 tons a year within the next decade.

South Africa is the fourth-ranked gold producer in the world.

Gold production from the Witwatersrand, the biggest known gold field in the world, peaked at around 1,000 tons...