SA’s mining production continues its slide in April
Besides coal and chrome, nearly all types of mining output declined over the year, with copper production down 28%
South African mines produced 4.3% less in April than in the same month in 2017, which was an improvement from March’s 8.5% production slump. The value of mining production sold in current prices in April came to R37bn, down from R39.6bn in March but 6.1% higher than the R35bn sold in April 2017, Statistics SA reported on Thursday. Stats SA reported total mining sales in current prices, which does not take inflation into account. The index of volume of mining production, which was set to 100 in 2015, was 89.8 points in April. This was 5.6% lower than March’s 95.1 points and 4.3% lower than 93.8 points in April 2017. Of the 12 mineral types Stats SA segments its mining report into, "other metallic minerals" suffered the biggest annual volume slump of 36.3%, followed by copper production which fell 27.6%. Only three categories reported annual production growth: other non-metallic minerals grew 7.6%; chromium ore production grew 5.1%; and coal production grew 3%. Measured by value, Apri...
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