SA gold production cools

Johannesburg - South African gold production dropped by 23.2% in August compared with the same month last year, data from Statistics South Africa said on Thursday.

However, gold production after seasonal adjustment was down by 8.6% for August 2008 compared with July 2008, the data noted.

Total gold mining production was down 6.2% year on year. On a seasonally adjusted basis, total production was up 9.7% in August compared with July.

Stats SA also revealed that total mining production for the three months ended August 2008 decreased by 8.0% compared with the three months ended August 2007.

After seasonal adjustment, total mining production for the three months ended August 2008 decreased by 0.5% compared with the previous three months, after large fluctuations since the start of 2008.

The three biggest contributors to the decrease were gold (-0.7 of a percentage point), diamonds (-0.5 of a percentage point) and coal (-0.4 of a percentage point). Iron ore production was the only significant positive contributor (0.9 of a percentage point) to the mining production for the three months ended August 2008.

Stats SA also said that the total value of mineral sales - at R27.5bn in July - was up 57.7% compared with July 2007.

The total seasonally adjusted value of mineral sales at current prices for the three months ended July 2008 reflected an increase of 7.0% compared with the previous three months.

This increase can be attributed to an increase of 7.9% in the sale of non-gold minerals and 2.1% in the sale of gold.

The actual estimated total value of mineral sales at current prices for the three months ended July 2008 increased by 48.7% compared with the three months ended July 2007.

The major contributors to this increase were PGMs (15.8 percentage points), coal (14.1 percentage points) and manganese ore (7.9 percentage points), Stats SA added.

- I-Net Bridge