Data released by Statistics South Africa shows that mining production and sales slowed by 2.6 percent in March 2023 compared to March 2022.
The largest contribution to the decline in the annual figure came from diamonds and platinum group of metals.
However, on a monthly basis, mining production surprised on the upside increasing by 6.5 percent in March compared with February this year.
Gold, platinum group of metals, iron ore and manganese contributed to the increase.
Economist at Efficient Group, Dawie Roodt says load shedding and the logistical constraints in the country will pose a challenge for mining production in the latter part of the year.
“We started off on a really low base that production was really put under tremendous pressure in the previous period, so even a slight improvement production will be reflected in a relatively large percentage. Must say I’m a little concerned about mining production over the next couple of months, we obviously all know about the electricity constraints in South Africa. You need electricity if you want to take stuff out of the ground, the second reason why I’m concerned about mining is that commodity prices internationally have been under some pressure. And that means mining production is likely to be under some pressure. And the third and also important reason is that general infrastructure, especially the rail roads in South Africa, so it’s difficult to get the stuff out of the ground, but it’s also difficult to get the stuff out of the country.”
