South African gold production fell 7,6% year-on-year in July 2009, Statistics South Africa said on Thursday.
Releasing mining production and minerals sales data, Stats SA said that by comparison non-gold production was up 6,7% year-on-year.
This pulled total production for July up 4,8% year-on-year.
Total mining production for the three months to end July 2009 decreased by 4,4% compared with the three months ended July 2008.
In the three months to July 2009, seasonally adjusted mining production increased by 4,9% compared with the previous three months.
Platinum group metals (PGMs) production was the main contributor (3 percentage points) to the 4,9% increase.
Seasonally adjusted mining production increased by 2% month-on-month in July. This is the fourth consecutive month-on-month increase since March 2009.
Iron ore production was the main contributor (1,2 percentage points) to the 2% increase.
Total mineral sales dropped 34,8% year-on-year to R19,47-billion in June 2009.
While gold sales were flat at R3,98-billion, non-gold sales slumped 40,2% year-on-year to R15,49-billion during the month.
Major contributors to this decrease were PGMs sales, which fell 15,7 percentage points or R12,96-billion; coal, which was six percentage points or R4,96-billion down; and manganese ore, which was 5,8 percentage points or R4,77-billion lower.
Iron ore sales contributed positively, showing a 2,4 percentage points or R1,96-billion improvement.
The total seasonally adjusted value of mineral sales at current prices for the second quarter of 2009 reflected a decrease of 5,7% compared with the previous quarter.
This decrease of 5,7%, or R3,45-billion, was a result of a decrease of 7,7%, or R3,7-billion, in the sale of non-gold minerals. — I-Net Bridge