Photo by Taton Moïse on Unsplash

After experiencing 14 consecutive months of year-on-year declines in mining production, South Africa saw a 2.3% increase in output in April compared to the same period last year. Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) revealed that the rise was mainly driven by gold and coal production, while diamond, platinum group metals (PGMs), and manganese ore production recorded the largest decreases.

Gold production surged by 27.4% year-on-year, contributing 3.5 percentage points to the overall increase. Coal output also witnessed a notable increase of 12.5%, contributing 3.1 percentage points. On the other hand, diamond production declined by 41.1%, PGMs by 4.6%, and manganese ore by 12.1%, resulting in decreases of -2, -1.1, and -1 percentage points, respectively.

Furthermore, seasonally adjusted mining production showed a month-on-month increase of 1.8% in April. This followed a 6.9% change in March and a -7% change in February. Over the three-month period ending in April, seasonally adjusted mining production rose by 0.4% compared to the previous three months, with gold and PGMs being the major contributors to this increase.

In contrast, mineral sales at current prices experienced a significant year-on-year decline of 25.6% in April. The largest negative contributors to this decline were PGMs (-41.7% and contributing -15.2 percentage points), coal (-22.9% and contributing -6.2 percentage points), and gold (-45.7% and contributing -3.5 percentage points). However, chromium ore demonstrated a significant positive contribution with a 61.5% increase, contributing 2.2 percentage points.

In terms of seasonally adjusted figures, mineral sales at current prices decreased by 10.1% in April compared to March. This followed month-on-month changes of -2.9% in March and -1.7% in February. The seasonally adjusted value of mineral sales at current prices for the three months ending in April was 5% lower compared to the previous three months.