Mining production remained in contractionary territory in August, declining at a softer pace of 5.9% year-on-year compared with the 8.2% year-on-year contraction in July, new data published by Statistics South Africa shows.

Commenting on this, Nedbank’s Group Economic Unit said that, although this was the softest contraction observed so far this year, production remained dismal relative to 2021, weighed down by deteriorating domestic and global economic conditions.

The contraction during the month was yet again driven by heavy-weights platinum group metals (PGMs), gold and iron-ore, which shaved off a combined 8.1 percentage points from overall production.

The main positive contributors were manganese ore and other metallic minerals, which added 1.5 and 0.9 percentage points, respectively.

Seasonally adjusted mining production was flat in August compared with July. This followed month-on-month changes of 3.1% in July and -1% in June.

Seasonally adjusted mining production increased by 0.6% in the three months ended August compared with the previous three months.

Manganese ore (12.5% and contributing 0.9 of a percentage point) and coal (2.4% and contributing 0.6 of a percentage point) were the largest positive contributors. PGMs (-5.7% and contributing -1.4 percentage points) was a significant negative contributor.

MINERAL SALES

Mineral sales at current prices increased by 4.3% year-on-year in August. The largest positive contributors were coal (83.1% and contributing 15 percentage points); ‘other’ non-metallic minerals (70% and contributing 2.3 percentage points); manganese ore (42.4% and contributing 1.8 percentage points); and ‘other’ metallic minerals (86.4% and contributing 1.4 percentage points).

PGMs (-25.0% and contributing -9.7 percentage points), iron-ore (-36.5% and contributing -4.7 percentage points) and gold (-20.5% and contributing -3.3 percentage points) were significant negative contributors.

Seasonally adjusted mineral sales at current prices decreased by 1.3% in August compared with July. This followed month-on-month changes of 6.6% in July and -15.8% in June .