Rand Refinery Rand Refinery Rand Refinery (Pty) Limited is the largest integrated single-site precious metals refining and smelting complex in the world. It was established in 1920 to refine gold within South Africa which until that time had been refined in London. Since its inception it has refined nearly 50,000 tonnes of gold. This represents some 30% of all the gold mined in the world since antiquity. It was established in 1920 in Germiston, South Africa, by the Chamber of Mines of South Africa to refine all the gold produced by South Africa's gold mines instead of in London. As of 1919,
South African rand and by the end of 1989, the Rand was trading at levels more than R 2.50 per dollar. As it became clear in the early-1990s that the country was destined for Black majority rule and one reform after the other was announced, uncertainty about the future of the country hastened the depreciation until the level of R 3 to the dollar was breached in November 1992. A host of local and international events influenced the currency after that, most notably the 1994 presiential election which had it weaken to over R 3.60 to the dollar, the election of Tito Mboweni