South African Gold Miners Post Worst Three-Day Drop in 21 Months

South Africa’s gold mining index posted its biggest three-day retreat in more than 21 months in Johannesburg trading as gold tumbled to beltrack mounted jaw crushers built in chinaow $1,600 an ounce and headed for the biggest two-day drop in a month.

The FTSE/JSE Africa Gold Mining Index declined 1.4 percent by 11:43 a.m. in Johannesburg, taking its losses for the past three days to 7.7 percent, the steepest since December 2009. AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (ANG), Africa’s biggest producer of the metal, dropped 0.9 percent. Gold Fields Ltd. (GFI), the world’s fourth- biggest gold producer, slumped 1.3 percent. Commodities fell on speculation European governments will struggle to contain the region’s debt crisis that has pushed Greece on the brink of default. That threatens to tip both the region and the global economy back into recession even as Group of 20 finance chiefs pledged “a strong and coordinated international response to address the renewed challenges facing the global economy” at International Monetary Fund and World Bank weekend meetings. “Over the last six to 18 months or so gold was riding on the back of fears of macro economics in the U.S. and Europe. Growth was slowing, real interest rates were...