JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South Africa’s mining production fell by 1,6% in November – the slowest pace of contraction since May, official data from Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) showed on Thursday.

However, the country’s mining production grew by 2,4% when compared with October.

Diamonds, copper and platinum group metals (PGMs) were the main contributors to the month-on-month increase, Kgotso Radira from Investec Group Economics said in a statement.

Stats SA data showed that the total mining production for the three months ended November, decreased by 1,9% compared with the previous three months.

PGMs production was the main contributor, falling 2,2 percentage points, while other nonmetallic minerals and copper production fell by 0,8 and 0,6 of a percentage point, respectively.

Stats SA noted that the actual estimated total mining production for the three months ended November 2009, decreased by 8,1% compared with the corresponding period in 2008.

Radira said that the recovery in South Africa’s mining production would depend on the pace of recovery in global industrial demand, which was beginning to show signs of stabilisation.

However, 2010 was expected to remain tough for the mining sector, owing to rand strength and the likelihood of high electricity tariff increases in July, Radira added.

The total seasonally adjusted value of mineral sales for the three months ended October 2009, reflected an increase of 5,2% compared with the previous three months.

The increase of 5,2%, or R2,8-billion, was mainly owing to an increases of 14,2% in the sales value of PGMs and 5,9% in the sales value of gold.

Stats SA stated that the actual estimated total value of mineral sales for the three months ended October 2009 decreased by 28,8% compared with the three months ended October 2008.

The major contributors to this decrease of 28,8%, year-on-year, were PGMs, contributing a 10,4 percentage points decline, coal, which contributed a decline of 9,1 percentage points, manganese ore, contributing a 5,9 percentage points decline, and other non-metallic minerals, which contributed a 3,5 percentage points decline.

The minerals that made the largest positive contributions to the change were gold, with one percentage point or R831,9-million, and iron-ore with half of a percentage point, or R428,8-million.

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