South Africa’s mining production down 4.3% y/y in April

South Africa’ mining output decreased by 4.3% in April compared with the same month last year, the national statistics agency said on Thursday.

Statistics South Africa said the largest negative contributors to the decline were platinum group metals (PGMs), which slid 6.5%, deducting 1.5 percentage points. Other metallic minerals tumbled 36.3%, while diamond production fell 24.1% and gold was down 5.5%.

Seasonally adjusted mining production decreased by 2% in April compared with March, following a drop of 3.5% in March and a slight increase of 0.2% in February.

“Seasonally adjusted mining production decreased by 3.4% in the three months ended April 30, compared with the previous three months,” Stats SA said.

“Ten out of the 12 mineral groups and minerals reported negative growth rates over this period,” it added, listing iron-ore, PGMs, and other metallic minerals as the largest negative contributors.

The agency said mineral sales increased by 6.1% year-on-year in April, with manganese ore, coal, other nonmetallic minerals and iron-ore being the main positive contributors.