JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Although there was an encouraging modest improvement in mining activity in August, the mining sector continues to face significant pressures amid depressed commodity prices, persistent domestic regulatory uncertainty and low productivity, BNP Paribas Cadiz Securities South Africa economist Jeffrey Schultz said on Thursday.
Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) revealed that headline mining production contracted by 0.2% year-on-year in August, compared with a 5.4% contraction in July.
“On a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, production grew 2.5%, reversing a similar fall in the prior month,” Schultz said.
The major contributors to the 2.5% rise in mining activity in August came from an 11.7% rise in iron-ore production, along with an 8.5% month-on-month bounce in platinum group metals (PGMs) production.
The largest negative month-on-month contributions came from a 7% decline in gold production and a 3.8% decrease in coal production.
“In year-on-year terms, the largest negative contributors to the headline production growth print continues to come from the gold sector, with production growth having slipped 8.2% year-on-year. We were at least encouraged by the 19% year-on-year bounce in iron-ore production and the 3.2% rise in PGM production growth achieved in August,” said Schultz.
He added that 9 of the 12 mining production subsectors tracked by Stats SA were in negative year-on-year growth territory.
Edited by: Chanel de Bruyn
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor Online
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