JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Mining production growth slowed to 0.9% year-on-year in July, compared with production growth of 1.3% year-on-year in June.
Statistics South Africa’s (Stats SA’s) latest mining production report, published on Thursday, showed that manganese ore, chromium ore, diamonds and gold were the main contributors to the increase.
Iron-ore and platinum-group metals (PGMs) were negative contributors, each decreasing by 5%.
Coal production was down 1.9% year-on-year.
Seasonally adjusted mining production decreased by 0.4% month-on-month in July.
Seasonally adjusted mining production increased by 0.1% in the three months ended July 31, compared with the previous three months.
Diamonds were the largest positive contributor and PGMs the largest negative contributor.
Nedbank commented that mining activity had rebounded from the low base in 2016, but cautioned that the longer-term prospects remained less certain as a result of a difficult operating environment and policy uncertainty.
Mineral sales decreased by 3.9% year-on-year in June 2017.
Seasonally adjusted mineral sales at current prices decreased by 1.4% month-on-month in June.