The mining industry is picking up significantly, building on the gains made in February. This indicates that the mining sector will make a positive contribution to first-quarter GDP. Mining production increased dramatically — 15.5% year-on-year in March 2017 — on an improvement in commodity prices and uptick in demand. The biggest contributors were platinum group metals (PGMs), which were up 30% and contributed 6.1 percentage points; iron ore, which increased 24.4% and contributed four percentage points; coal which was up 8.1% and contributed 2 percentage points; and diamonds which experienced a huge increase of 53.8% and contributed 1.6 percentage points. Seasonally adjusted mining production increased by 3.7% in March 2017 compared with 2.3% in February. Seasonally adjusted mining production increased by 3.5% in the first quarter of 2017 compared with the previous quarter, with PGMs contributing 3.5 percentage points.
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