This is Gold, a collaborative and web-based initiative to provide insight into the gold industry, its processes and its contribution to South Africa, launched today. The initiative serves as a platform to represent the South African gold industry and will, it says,  “provide honest, balanced information that can be used to understand the history of gold mining in South Africa, the work being done by the industry today and the plans in place for the industry’s future. It is founded on the belief that open, honest and vigorous engagement is a route to better understanding the industry and indeed the issues currently facing South Africa.”

The gold industry has played a significant role in South Africa’s history and while South Africa’s gold mining production is declining as its ore reserves diminish, the industry still has an important role to play in the country’s economy. Although South Africa is no longer the world’s largest producer of gold, it still produces 5.6% of annual newly mined gold and the country’s resources remain one of the world’s greatest.

The gold industry provides employment to thousands of people in South Africa. In 2013, 132,000 people were directly employed in the gold sector. Each job sustains more than five other jobs upstream and downstream of mining, meaning 700,000 indirect jobs are created as a result.

This is Gold sees the potential of the gold industry to help transform South Africa, as it faces issues such as the legacy of migrant labour, housing and accommodation, employee indebtedness, an unstable labour environment, safety and health on its mines and sharing the benefits generated from mining. www.thisisgold.co.za

The following are the participant companies.

AngloGold Ashanti is a global gold mining and exploration company with a diverse portfolio of mining operations and projects on four continents, with more than 96% of the company’s revenue derived from the sale of gold produced at its operations located around the world. Working across the full spectrum of the mining value chain, safety and the sustainability of the company’s operating activities remain a core focus for management.

The company is headquartered in Johannesburg and has operations in South Africa, the DRC, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Namibia, Tanzania, Australia, Argentina, Brazil and the United States. Across these operations it employs around 66,000 people, including contractors.

Gold Fields is an unhedged, globally diversified producer of gold with eight operating mines in Australia, Ghana, Peru and South Africa. In February 2013, Gold Fields unbundled its mature underground Beatrix and KDC mines in South Africa into an independent and separately listed company, Sibanye Gold. It also expanded its presence in Australia, acquiring the Darlot, Granny Smith and Lawlers mines (known as the ‘Yilgarn South Assets’) from Barrick Gold.

Gold Fields has attributable annual gold production of approximately 2.02 Moz, as well as attributable Mineral Reserves of around 49 Moz and Mineral Resources of around 113 Moz. Attributable copper Mineral Reserves total 708 Mlb and Mineral Resources 7,120 Mlb. Gold Fields employs around 10,000 permanent employees.

Harmony is a gold-mining and exploration company, with over six decades experience, with operations in South Africa and Papua New Guinea (PNG), one of the world’s most well-known gold mining regions and one of the world’s premier new gold regions respectively. In 2014, Harmony was the 11th largest gold producer in the world, and the third largest producer of gold in South Africa.

Sibanye owns and operates high quality gold operations in South Africa – consolidated into one group with one vision and strategy. It is the largest individual producer of gold from South Africa and is one of the world’s ten largest gold producers. It currently owns and operates four underground and surface gold operations, namely the Driefontein Operation (Driefontein), the Kloof Operation (Kloof) and the Cooke Operation (Cooke) in the West Witwatersrand region and the Beatrix Operation (Beatrix) in the southern Free State. In addition to its mining activities, the Group owns and manages significant extraction and processing facilities at its surface operations, which beneficiate the gold bearing ore mined.