SOUTH AFRICA STILL SEEKING INCREASE IN PRICE OF GOLD

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 September 1949, Page 6

SOUTH AFRICA STILL SEEKING INCREASE IN PRICE OF GOLD

NEW YORK, September 19. —The South African decision to devalue its £, which had immediately increased the sterling price of gold by 30 per cent., would not affect the Union’s representations to the International Monetary fund for an increase in the world price of gold, said the South African Minister of Finance (Mr N. C. Havenga) today. Mr Havenga said that, the new sterling price as a result of devaluation would bring relief to gold producers in the soft currency- area of the world, but the hard currency value of gold still needed adjustment. South Africa would continue to press for an urgent investigation cf the whole problem of the future world value of gold. Reuter’s Johannesburg correspondent says financial circles predicted today that sterling devaluation and the simultaneous devaluation of the South African £ should usher in a boom era in South Africa. The effect on gold-mining shares would be considerable, although mines might take,, advantage of the higher gold price to prolong their life by mining reserves of low grade ore which were at present un-econornical to work. The Johannesburg correspondent cf the Associated Press says the devaluation of sterling means that South African gold shares at their nresent market rates will appreciate by £300,000,000.