South African Gold Production Falls 5.8% In 2009

That drop put the country in fourth place in gold production. Unlike in Australia and mainland China, South Africa's gold production dropped last year:

South Africa was the world's largest gold producer for most of the last century up until 2006.

Gold production last year stood at 204,922.8 kg, which was an improvement on the 14.5 percent decline in output that occurred in 2008 mostly as a result of power cuts that crippled mines, the Chamber said in a statement.

Lat year's decrease is a figure that gibes with the peak-gold hypothesis.