The South African Republic is the world’s largest platinum and chrome producer and one of the world’s largest gold and diamond producer. Local mines were dismissed due to coronavirus pandemic. When the strict restrictions were finally eased, miners began to face a new problem – lack of workforce.
Even though foreign workers are slowly returning, there’s still only around 60% of them. Workers face difficulties when crossing borders as officials can’t check in travelers in time due to strict anti-pandemic measures.
There are roughly 12,500 foreigners working in mining industry in the South African Republic mainly from neighboring Mozambique and Lesotho. Officials planned to check in around one tenth of them in upcoming ten days. Yet, due to limited capacities on borders, the process may take double the time. Opening of diamond plants might not be as problematic as opening gold mines. Price of gold has grown during las few weeks and approached its record-highs from 2011. And miners count their losses.
