Production has declined year on year for 12 consecutive months, Stats SA data shows
When mineral resources & energy minister Gwede Mantashe addresses mining conferences, he sometimes makes the point of saying that mining is a sunrise industry, not the sunset industry many South Africans imagine.
The month-on-month figures show a happier picture, with mining output up by a much better than-expected 4.4% in January, after it was up 1.3% in December. Encouragingly too, the sharpest increases during the month were in some of SA’s largest export earners, especially iron ore. Gold and coal had good months too, though the important platinum group metals posted a decline.
How much more could SA have gained from its mining industry if the industry were able to produce more, and to export more? That’s really the issue, in the case of a sector which has come to the rescue of the economy and the public purse in a major way over the past two years or more. As the Minerals Council has pointed out, the industry paid over almost R74bn in company taxes and R14bn more in mining royalties to the taxman in 2022.
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