South Africa's first new underground gold mine in 15 years will begin production next year.

South Africa is set to open its first new underground gold mine in 15 years, which is rare for a country that was once the world's largest gold producer. Australian company West Wits Mining plans to start production next year at the Qala Shallows on the western edge of Johannesburg. The company will mine ore over a three-year construction period to take advantage of the currently high gold prices. The company will invest $90 million to create a mine with an annual production of 70,000 ounces of gold. While the scale is small, it still represents a bright spot for South Africa's shrinking gold industry. South Africa's gold production used to be the highest in the world, but it has declined by over 70% in the past 20 years, with its deep and high-cost mines struggling to compete with other producing countries. Nowadays, the gold industry in South Africa employs less than 90,000 people, only a fifth of the workforce during the apartheid era in the 1980s. The maximum depth of the Qala Shallows mine is 850 meters, much lower than some of South Africa's deep mines that exceed 3 kilometers.