South Africa’s mining sector output declined by 6 per cent year-on-year in February 2022, compared with 1.7 per cent in January 2022, according to a report by StatsSA.

StatsSA said the largest negative contributors were iron ore, which recorded a slump of 29.2 per cent, contributing -3.4 percentage points, platinum group metals also fell by 16.5 per cent, contributing -3.3 percentage points, and gold fell by 9.3 per cent, contributing -1.3 percentage points. Albeit, the Agency added that production of coal was 5.6 per cent, contributing 1.5 percentage points which was a significant positive contributor.

In the last five months, the mining sector’s output has been positive, increasing steadily from 0.9 per cent in September 2021, 3.2 per cent in October 2021, and 6.1 per cent in November 2021. Only in December 2021, that the sector’s output declined by 0.9 per cent, though in the subsequent month (January 2022), the sector’s output rose to 1.7 per cent.

“Seasonally adjusted mining production decreased by 6.4 per cent in February 2022 compared with January 2022. This followed month-on-month changes of 6.2 per cent in January 2022 and -4.4 per cent in December 2021.”
StatsSA

Mineral Sales Up in February

StatsSA also noted that total mineral sales at current prices increased by 6.4 per cent year-on-year in February, 2022. Meanwhile, the largest positive contributors were coal, which recorded a growth of 58.6 per cent, contributing 10.6 percentage points to mineral sales.

Additionally, platinum group metals, recorded 5.1 per cent, contributing 1.8 percentage points. Other non-metallic minerals recorded a sales growth of 81.1 per cent, contributing 2.3 percentage points, according to StatsSA.

However, year-on-year gold sales declined by 45 per cent, contributing -5 percentage points to mineral sales year-on-year, iron ore sales declined by 15.9 per cent, contributing -2.8 percentage points were significant negative contributors.

For mineral sales, data on the past five months also revealed a positive trend in growth from September 2021 to December 2021: 2.3 per cent in September, 5.4 per cent in October, 23.6 per cent in November and 11.4 per cent in December. Albeit, in the beginning of 2022, mineral sales growth declined to 7.7 per cent.

“Seasonally adjusted mineral sales at current prices increased by 7.1 per cent in February 2022 with January 2022. This followed month-on-month changes of -1.2% in January 2022 and -6.2 per cent in December 2021. In the three months ended February 2022 the seasonally adjusted value of mineral sales at current prices was 0.7 per cent higher compared with the previous three months.

“The monthly mining production and sales survey is conducted by the DMRE, covering all mining establishments operating in the South African economy. The results of this survey are used to calculate the volume of mining production indices in order to estimate the gross domestic product (GDP) and its components, which in turn are used to develop and monitor government policy.”
StatsSA

According to the agency, “the survey covered mining establishments conducting activities regarding the extracting, dressing and beneficiating of minerals occurring naturally”.