We were recently scolded by an European diplomat that stated that he does not like to re-tweet our eNEWS anymore because there is nothing positive in it. Well, my friend, even we cannot change reality and do not want to fabricate euphoria where there is none. But finally, here is something for you to re-tweet: South Africa’s mining production increased by 5.3% year-on-year (y/y) in September 2014, according to data released by Statistics South Africa today.
h3. Mining plus and minus
The main contributors to the 5.3% increase were iron ore (contributing 5.7 %), coal (contributing 1.8 %) and manganese ore (contributing 1.2 %). The Platinum Group Metals (PGM) are still battling to recover from the strikes and therefore remained a large negative contributor (contributing -4.1 %).
The highest positive growth rates were recorded for iron ore (38.3%), manganese ore (20.1%) and diamonds (15.1%). Seasonally adjusted mining production increased by 7.0% in September 2014 compared with August 2014 and seasonally adjusted mineral sales at current prices decreased by 0.5% in August 2014 compared with July 2014.