According to MiningWeekly, a report by South Africa’s Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) shows that the country’s mining production fell by 0.8% year-on-year in May, with the largest declines observed in platinum group metals and diamonds.
　　In May, South Africa’s production of platinum-group metals fell by 7.2% year-on-year, dragging down the overall figure by 1.9 percentage points; diamond production declined by 31.4%, contributing a drag of 1.2 percentage points.
　　The largest contributor was gold, with a year-on-year increase of 27.3%, adding 3.4 percentage points to growth; manganese ore increased by 9.4%, contributing 0.7 percentage points.
　　After seasonal adjustment, growth in May rose 3.8% month-on-month, while the increases for April and March were 1.5% and 7.1%, respectively.
　　Seasonally adjusted, mining production for the three months ending May 30 increased by 3.1% compared to the previous quarter, with gold (up 10.1%), iron ore (up 6%), and coal (up 1.9%) making the largest contributions.
　　At current prices, mineral product sales in May fell by 11.8% year-on-year. The biggest drag came from coal, whose output declined by 37%, subtracting 10.2 percentage points from the overall figure; next was platinum-group metals, with output down 20.1% and contributing a drag of 6.2 percentage points; followed by iron ore, whose output fell by 30.2%, accounting for a drag of 3.9 percentage points.
　　In May, gold sales increased by 71.8%, contributing 7.3 percentage points.
　　At current prices, seasonally adjusted sales of mineral products in May rose 22.7% month-on-month. In April and March, sales had fallen by 12.6% and 2.2%, respectively.
　　In the three months ending May 30, seasonally adjusted sales of mineral products fell by 5.1% month-on-month at current prices.