Gold is glimmering brighter than ever for South Africa and its mining giants, with a surge in bullion prices and a rare new mine opening breathing fresh hope into a sector long thought to be past its prime. On August 22, 2025, Gold Fields, one of the world’s top gold miners, announced that its first-half profit had more than tripled compared to the previous year, sending its interim dividend soaring and signaling renewed vigor in the country’s famed gold belt. Meanwhile, the nation is preparing to welcome its first new underground gold mine in 15 years, a milestone that has the industry and observers buzzing.
Gold Fields’ financial results are nothing short of striking. According to Reuters, the Johannesburg-based miner’s headline earnings leapt to $1.027 billion for the six months ending June 30, 2025, up from $320.7 million in the same period last year. Such a dramatic increase, more than tripling profits, was powered by two main engines: a 24% rise in gold production and a record-breaking rally in gold prices. The company’s gold output reached 1.136 million ounces in the first half of 2025, a testament to both operational improvements and the resilience of the sector.
“Gold Fields’ production benefited from operational improvements at Salares Norte in Chile, South Deep in South Africa, Cerro Corona in Peru, and Gruyere in Australia,” Reuters reported. Notably, Gruyere had faced setbacks last year due to bad weather and geological hurdles, but those challenges now seem firmly in the rearview mirror. With the wind at its back, Gold Fields declared an interim dividend of R7 per share—more than double the R3 per share paid out in the first half of 2024. For investors, it’s a clear sign that the company is sharing the spoils of its recent success.
This resurgence comes at a fascinating moment for South Africa’s gold industry. Once the world’s largest producer of the precious metal, the country has seen its output tumble by over 70% in the past two decades. Deep, high-cost mines and fierce international competition have chipped away at its dominance. Yet, as Bloomberg notes, the sector’s fortunes are being buoyed by a global gold price rally that has seen bullion climb around 27% this year, following a similar gain in 2024. On the morning of August 22, gold traded at about $3,340 an ounce in London—levels that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.
Amid this golden revival, West Wits Mining Ltd., an Australia-listed company, is making headlines by preparing to open the Qala Shallows mine on Johannesburg’s western fringe. It’s the first new underground gold mine to break ground in South Africa since 2009, when Gold One Group’s Modder East began operations. CEO Rudi Deysel, speaking to Bloomberg, remarked, “We are really the only formal company trying to start a new mine” in South Africa’s gold industry. The $90 million investment is expected to yield a modest but meaningful annual output of 70,000 ounces.
Qala Shallows is notable not just for its output, but for its relatively shallow depth—maxing out at 850 meters, compared to some South African mines that plunge more than 3 kilometers beneath the surface. The project is set to generate $2.7 billion over its 17-year life, with production costs projected below $1,300 an ounce, according to its feasibility study. For context, these costs sit comfortably below current market prices, making the project especially attractive. Deysel emphasized the project’s improved outlook, saying, “It was always good, but with these prices, where gold has gone, this project just became better and better.”
The journey to this point has been years in the making. West Wits secured mining rights from the South African government four years ago, and contractors began mobilizing to the site in June 2025 as construction entered the execution phase. The company has received a substantial financial boost, with state-owned Industrial Development Corp. and commercial bank Absa Group Ltd. agreeing to lend about $50 million toward the mine’s construction. In a savvy move, West Wits will send its ore to a nearby processing facility owned by Sibanye Stillwater Ltd., sidestepping the need to build a new plant from scratch. “We don’t need to build a plant, we can utilize the capacity that’s available,” Deysel explained. “So that’s a big tick.”
But while these developments are cause for celebration, they also highlight the challenges and changes facing South Africa’s gold sector. The country’s gold industry now employs just under 90,000 people—less than a fifth of the workforce that powered the apartheid-era economy in the 1980s. The contraction has been driven by rising wages, surging electricity prices, and the immense technical difficulties of operating the world’s deepest mines. Each gold miner supports between five and ten dependents, while creating two jobs elsewhere, so the sector’s struggles reverberate far beyond the mine gates.
Duncan Money, a mining historian quoted by Bloomberg, offered a nuanced view of the industry’s decline: “The demise of South Africa’s gold industry is usually told as a kind of morality tale about bad domestic politics, but the crucial development was the worldwide expansion stimulated by soaring gold prices in the 1970s and 1980s.” In other words, as gold mining became more attractive elsewhere, South Africa’s deep and costly operations lost their edge.
Still, the Qala Shallows project stands as a rare bright spot. The mine will tap into a section of a concession that was closed in 2000 after more than a century of operation. Its opening is a reminder that, even in a mature sector, opportunities can arise when market conditions and vision align. Other companies in the region are focused on extracting gold from the vast dumps of mining waste scattered across the Witwatersrand Basin, or on reviving abandoned underground operations. But new ventures like Qala Shallows are few and far between.
For Gold Fields, the current environment is a vindication of its global strategy and operational improvements. For South Africa, the opening of Qala Shallows is both a nod to its rich mining past and a tentative step toward a more dynamic future. The combination of soaring gold prices, renewed investment, and operational innovation is injecting fresh energy into a sector that many had written off. Whether this marks a true renaissance or a fleeting uptick remains to be seen, but for now, the gold rush spirit is alive and well in Johannesburg and beyond.
As the world watches the price of gold and the fate of South Africa’s mining industry, these latest developments offer a compelling snapshot of resilience, adaptation, and the enduring allure of the world’s most coveted metal.