JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South Africa’s mining output fell by 1% year-on-year in July, with gold output down 3,4% year-on-year, Statistics South Africa revealed on Thursday.

Iron-ore production fell by 4,5%, copper output by 31,5%, platinum-group metals (PGMs) declined by 0,7%, nickel by 3,8% and coal output dropped by 5,1% year-on-year in July.

However, some improvement was seen in the diamond sector, with production increasing by 49,5% year-on-year in July. Chromium ore output also increased, up 35,4% year-on-year in July, while manganese ore production jumped 33,7%.

In three months ended July 31, 2010, mining production declined by 4,9% on that of the three months ended April 30, 2010. This was mainly owing to the PGMs sector, which contributed 1,7 percentage points and the coal sector, which contributed 1,4 percentage points to the decline.

Production for the three months ended July was also down 2,8% on that produced in the three months ended July 2009.

Meanwhile, the total value of mineral sales in June increased by 25,8% year-on-year.

Mineral sales in three months ended June were up 8,2% on that of the three months ended April, mainly owing to increases in the sales value of iron-ore, which contributed 7,2 percentage points and gold, which contributed 4,9 percentage points to the increase.

The value of mineral sales in the quarter ended June was also 24,8% higher than that of mineral sales in the three months ended June 2009.