South Africa’s total mining production contracted by 7.2% year-on-year in 2022, following growth of 11.6% year-on-year in 2021 and a contraction of 10.4% year-on-year in 2020, reports Statistics South Africa.

In December 2022, mining production decreased by 3.5% year-on-year, brought down primarily by a 15.2% year-on-year decline in iron-ore production, which subtracted 2.1 percentage points from the overall tally.

A 36.9% decline in the production of diamonds saw 1.9 percentage points being removed from the overall figure, while a 5.3% decline in the production of platinum group metals (PGMs) meant the commodities were responsible for 1.5 percentage points being removed, overall.

Compared with November, seasonally-adjusted mining production increased by 1.2% in December; following month-on-month changes of -0.8% in November and -2.9% in October.

Quarter-on-quarter, seasonally-adjusted mining production decreased by 3.4% in the fourth quarter of 2022, brought down mainly by a 32.4% decline in diamond production that subtracted 1.7 percentage points from the overall tally.

The production of iron-ore was 6.8% lower quarter-on-quarter, resulting in 0.8 of a percentage point being subtracted from the overall figure, while a 2.5% decline in PGMs production saw the overall tally slip by 0.6 of a percentage point.

In terms of sales, a 17.6% year-on-year increase in the sale of coal added four percentage points to the overall sales for December. Chromium ore increased by 35.3%, adding 1.1 percentage points. This helped to boost sales with an increase of 0.1% year-on-year in December.

However, the marginal overall sales growth was impacted negatively by a 12.6% decline in sales of PGMs, an 8.6% decline in sales of iron-ore, together accounting for 5.6 percentage points being deducted from the overall sales figures.

Nonetheless, compared with 2021, total mineral sales were 2.8% higher in 2022; following increases of 39.7% in 2021 and 10.9% in 2020.

Seasonally-adjusted mineral sales at current prices increased by 9.9% month-on-month in December, following month-on-month changes of -8.1% in November and -6.1% in October.

Quarter-on-quarter, the seasonally-adjusted value of mineral sales at current prices was 10.7% lower in the fourth quarter of 2022.