After three consecutive months of declining real mining production, Stats SA reported a solid increase of 2.9% month-on-month (m-o-m) in August. Importantly, despite the bounce in August, the level of production was still below April 2024, i.e., before the three-month period of declining output.
In terms of individual commodities, production of platinum group metals, or PGMs (+9.9% m-o-m), copper (+44.9%) and nickel (+32.1%) were the major contributors to the overall monthly increase. On the downside, diamond production declined by 22.9% m-o-m, while gold was down by 2.9%. Although it has been very volatile in recent months, the sharp rise in copper production in August is of particular interest. Although it does not fully account for the rise, August 2024 was the first time since 1983 that copper was mined from the Rietberg copper mine in the Northern Cape. In the next several years, the re-emergence of copper mining in the Northern Cape should provide a sustained boost to South Africa’s copper production.
