JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – While South Africa’s mining output figures were still not looking good, some sort of a base was starting to build, fund manager Vestact director Sasha Naryshkine said on Thursday.

South Africa’s total mining production for March was down 4,6% year-on-year, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) reported, while total mining production for the quarter was down 12,8%, compared with the quarter ended December 2008.

Stats SA stated that the main contributors to the 12,8% decline were platinum-group metals and diamonds.

Naryshkine noted that the two biggest drawdowns in the quarter had been diamonds and chrome, with each recording a 52,2% decline on the quarter ended December 2008.

Many diamond-mining companies had placed their operations on care-and-maintenance as a result of lower demand during the first quarter of the year.

Gold had, meanwhile, increased by 0,2% quarter-on-quarter, while iron-ore had remained flat.

Naryshkine noted that there seemed to be a good uptick in demand for iron-ore.

PGMs production could also likely increase once the automotive industry started its turnaround, while coal production could likely increase given that South Africa was now entering winter.

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