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Gold/Mining/Energy : Gold Price Monitor -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: PaulM who wrote (38334)	8/4/1999 9:01:00 PM
From: Alex	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116790

SA police seize stolen gold SA police seize stolen gold South African police have seized a huge haul of stolen gold dust and nuggets from a gang operating out of the Welkom goldfields, south-west of Johannesburg. The gold was found at a mineworkers' hostel in Thabong township, which has become known as "the biggest private smelting house in the southern hemisphere", according to police. In the raid they discovered •two tonnes of gold dust •10 gold nuggets •smelting equipment including 150 crushing moulds and 65 cutting torches. Police arrested 13 Zimbabweans and four illegal immigrants from Lesotho in the raid on what is known as G hostel. The hostel houses thousands of miners from other countries working at Welkom's 45 goldmines. Superintendent Ernie Janse van Rensburg said G hostel had for the past 12 years supplied the black market with large amounts of gold. "It is stolen from the mines and then smuggled from here to Johannesburg and sold on the black market," he told the French news agency AFP. 'They'll be back' None of the men arrested on Wednesday were mineworkers, and it was not clear where the gold dust was stolen from. Police admitted that previous raids had only managed to shut down operations at G hostel for short periods. "Within a week or two they are back up and running," a police spokeswoman said. BBC Southern Africa Correspondent Jane Standley says the hostel's residents are so well armed that substantial reinforcements are needed to raid it. South Africa's gold mining industry - the largest in the world - estimates that every year it loses 30 tonnes of gold, worth more than $260m, to smugglers. news.bbc.co.uk