Johannesburg - Prices of South Africa's largest bullion producers plummeted after Greece said it would buy back bonds worth €10bn to check its ballooning debt and unlock billions more in aid.
Uncertainty in the euro zone has meant that investors have relied on gold as a safe haven, and avoided taking on riskier assets.
"It looks like Greece are going to have a bond buy back, which will help things a lot," says Nick Kunze, a director at Terrassen Capital Management in Johannesburg. "All of a sudden gold doesn't have the same lustre."
The strengthening rand is also feeding into gold miner's general weakness, Kunze said. The rand has gained 0.87%. A weaker rand is a positive for gold miners, as they sell gold for dollars but pay expenses in rand.
Gold Fields was down 3.8%, AngloGold Ashanti has lost 2.7%, while Harmony was 1.9% softer.