SA mining sector contracts 10.4% in October as gold and PGM production lower

According to Statistics South Africa (StatsSA), the domestic mining production decreased by 10.4% year-on-year in October 2022.

StatsSA said that largest negative contributors were platinum group metals, (-32.5%, contributing -9.2 percentage points); gold (-6.3%, contributing -1.0 percentage point); diamonds (-22.5%, contributing -0.9 of a percentage point); and manganese ore (-10.5%, contributing -0.7 of a percentage point).

The agency added that seasonally adjusted mining production decreased by 2.5% in October 2022 compared with September 2022. This followed month-on-month changes of -0.1% in September 2022 and -0.4% in August 2022. According to the report, the country’s seasonally adjusted mining production was flat in the three months ended October 2022 compared with the previous three months.