South Africa’s mining industry expands 22% in May

The Department of Statistics of South Africa announced today that the domestic mining production increased by 21.9% year-on-year in May 2021.

According to the report, the largest positive contributors were platinum group metals (27.0% increase, contributing 6.1 percentage points); gold (44.5% increase, contributing 4.8 percentage points); iron ore (48.4% increase, contributing 4.0 percentage points); and manganese ore (39.7% increase, contributing 3.2 percentage points).

South Africa’s seasonally adjusted mining production decreased by 3.5% in May 2021 compared with April 2021. This followed month-on-month changes of 0.2% in April 2021 and 4.5% in March 2021. Seasonally adjusted mining production increased by 5.6% in the three months ended May 2021 compared with the previous three months.

The authors of the report noted that the domestic mineral sales at current prices increased by 88.2% year-on-year in May 2021. The largest positive contributors were platinum group metals (258.2%, contributing 68.7 percentage points); iron ore (116.0%, contributing 16.3 percentage points); and coal (12.5%, contributing 3.1 percentage points).

Seasonally adjusted mineral sales at current prices decreased by 3.0% in May 2021 compared with April 2021. This followed month-on-month changes of 2.6% in April 2021 and 17.0% in March 2021.

In the three months ended May 2021, the seasonally adjusted value of mineral sales at current prices was 20.0% higher compared with the previous three months, the report concluded.