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Mining production down in South Africa

Mining production was down 3.3% year-on-year in August, according to the latest figures from Statistics South Africa released this week.

Staff reporter
 The latest mining production figures for the year ended August 2020, from Statistics South Africa

The latest mining production figures for the year ended August 2020, from Statistics South Africa

However month-on-month figures show production has started to climb in the months since restrictions have eased following the nationwide lockdown to stem the spread of COVID-19.

Stats SA said the gold and iron ore sectors were the largest negative contributors for the 12-month period, down 14.8% and 18.1% respectively.

Platinum group metals miners were the largest contributor, up 12.7%.

Gold's drop contributed -1.9 percentage points to the change in production volume, while PGMs' gain added 2.6 percentage points.

Seasonally adjusted mining production rose 27.5% for the three months ended August 2020, compared with a year earlier.

The month-on-month seasonally adjusted figures have risen from -0.7% in June, to 20.3% in July and a further 6.8% increase in August.

Mining production had plunged 47.3% year-on-year in April, the first month following the lockdown which began on March 27. 

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Stats SA seasonally adjusted mining production for August 2020

Mineral sales were up 20.9% year-on-year in August, Stats SA said.

PGMs were up 63%, contributing 15.8 percentage points, ahead of iron ore, up 39.3% and contributing 5.1 percentage points.

The government department noted it was the first publication using weights based on national accounts value added data for 2016-2018, rather than 2015-2017.

Under the reweighting, the coal sector represented 25%, followed by PGMs with 22.43% then gold with 16.81%.

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