South Africa's mining production fell 7.5% year-on-year in July, with platinum group metals (PGMs), coal and iron ore acting as the biggest drags on overall growth, according to Statistics South Africa (Stats SA).
PGM output dropped 13.5%, subtracting 3.2 percentage points from the headline figure. Coal production declined 7.5%, contributing -2 percentage points, while iron ore fell 8.1%, accounting for -1.3 percentage points.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, mining production slipped 1.9% month-on-month in July, following a 0.1% rise in June and a 5.6% fall in May.
Over the three months to July, seasonally adjusted mining production contracted 5.5% compared with the prior three-month period. The main negative forces were PGMs (-14.3%, contributing -4.2 percentage points), manganese ore (-6.7%, -0.5 of a percentage point), gold (-4.6%, -0.4 of a percentage point) and iron ore (-2.7%, -0.4 of a percentage point).
Mineral sales at current prices declined 5.6% year-on-year in July.
The largest negative contributors were gold (-33.4%, -8.5 percentage points), 'other' non-metallic minerals (-26%, -0.7 of a percentage point) and nickel (-51.7%, -0.4 of a percentage point).
Chromium ore (+20%, +1.6 percentage points) and coal (+5%, +1 percentage point) provided the biggest positive offsets.
Seasonally adjusted mineral sales at current prices fell 15.1% month-on-month in July, after rising 2% in June and falling 5.2% in May.
Seasonally adjusted mineral sales at current prices were down 10% for the three months ended July compared with the previous three months.
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor-In-Chief, Rough & Polished
