JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South Africa’s mining output for November 2012 fell by 4.5% year-on-year, with gold output down 32.2%, official data showed on Tuesday.
The data, released by Statistics South Africa, further showed that copper output fell by 57.3% in November, compared with November 2011, followed by ‘other’ metallic minerals, which was down 13% year-on-year.
Gold contributed 5.5 percentage points to the 4.5% year-on-year decrease in overall mining output, while copper contributed 0.9 of a percentage point.
Mineral sales in October preceded the downward trend in output, decreasing by 13.5% year-on-year, with chromium ore recording the largest negative growth rate, at 42.9%, followed by other metallic minerals, at 37.1%, copper at 35.2% and gold sales dropping by 27.1%.
The major contributors to the 13.5% decrease were gold, which contributed 5.6 percentage points, coal, which contributed 2.5 percentage points, and iron-ore, contributing some 1.7 percentage points.
The Nedbank Economic Unit said in a statement that despite a slight recovery in mining production in November, which was an improvement on the 7.7% decline in the October year-on-year production figures, the sector continued to be plagued by difficult operating conditions, citing current operational issues at Harmony Gold's Kusasalethu mine which, if put under care and maintenance, would see over 6 000 permanent and contract workers lose their jobs.
It added that such situations would continue to undermine the performance and confidence of local mining operations in the months ahead.