Johannesburg – The market cap of South African mining companies surged to more than R1 trillion in 2020, signalling that the industry had weathered the Covid-19 storm mostly unscathed.
According to a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) SA Mine 2020 annual survey released yesterday the total market capitalization for the industry jumped 52% to R1.28 trillion from R840 billion a year earlier mainly as a result of the increase in gold and Platinum Group Metal (PGM) sectors.
The report said that gold and PGM accounted for 80% of the companies’ annualized market capitalization and continued to dominate the sector. Miners have recorded bumper profits on gold’s growing lustre as an investment hedge amid the coronavirus pandemic and the strong PGM basket price environment helped by a softer rand.
The report, however, said that the weak rand benefit would, unfortunately, have to be “paid back” through higher input cost inflation.
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