South Africa's annual mining production showed a slight uptick in September, only the third time this year that volumes have increased.
According to StatsSA, production across all mineral groups was up 0.2% in September 2019 when compared to September 2018. This was mainly due to a 8.2% increase in the volume of iron ore.
The 0.2% increase was above the projections of marketwatchers , who had expected a decrease of up to 2% for September.
While gold production still fell, it recorded its smallest annual contraction in five months, falling by 2.3% when compared to September 2018. Annual bullion production fell by 19% in April, 24.3% in May, 16% in June, 13.5% in July and 5.3% in August. Diamond production, meanwhile, fell by 15.7%.