South Africa's mining production increased by 3.9% year-on-year in October, with platinum group metals (PGMs), manganese ore and chromium ore having made the largest positive contributions.
PGMs production increased by 16.9% year-on-year (contributing four percentage points to the overall figure), while manganese ore output was up 8.9% year-on-year (contributing 0.7 of a percentage point) and chromium ore by 13.8% (contributing 0.6 of a percentage point).
Seasonally adjusted mining production increased by 2.1% month-on-month in October, Statistics South Africa's data shows.
This followed month-on-month changes of -0.1% in September and 0.9% in August.
Further, seasonally adjusted mining production increased by 0.7% in the three months ended October 31, compared with the previous three months. The largest positive contributors were coal (3.5% and contributing 0.8 of a percentage point) and PGMs (2% and contributing 0.5 of a percentage point).
Gold (-5.1% and contributing -0.8 of a percentage point) was a significant negative contributor.
Meanwhile, mineral sales at current prices decreased by 0.7% year-on-year in October.
The largest negative contributors were PGMs (-32.1% and contributing -10.5 percentage points) and coal (-18.2% and contributing -5.3 percentage points).
Seasonally adjusted mineral sales at current prices increased by 12.6% month-on-month in October. This followed month-on-month changes of -4.1% in September and 6.9% in August.
Mineral sales at current prices decreased by 1.3% in the three months ended October 31, compared with the previous three months.