South Africa’s mining production increases 0.5% y/y – Stats SA
Date: Dec 12, 2018
Mining production lifted marginally, by 0.5% year-on-year, in October, primarily on the back of strong growth in platinum group metals (PGMs), diamonds and manganese ore output, according to Statistics South Africa (Stats SA).
Production of PGMs, which occupy the second-highest weighting in the minerals basket at 23.5%, increased by 21.4%, adding 4.3 percentage points to the headline number.
Meanwhile, diamond production increased by 27.2%, adding 1.4 percentage points, while manganese ore production increased by 19.9%, contributing 0.9 of a percentage point.
This performance was partly able to counter the negative affect of production declines in the gold and iron sectors, which dipped by 15.1% year-on-year and 22% year-on-year, respectively.
Commenting on the statistics on Tuesday, Investec noted that the country’s mining sector continues to face multiple challenges, including access to and mounting costs of fundamental inputs.
