South Africa's mining production falls

South African mining production fell 2.5% year on year (y/y) in Januarprocessing of gold orey after a revised 0.1% (0.9%) increase in December, Statistics SA data released on Tuesday shows.

Gold production contracted by 11.3% y/y after an 8.2% y/y decline in December. Seasonally adjusted mining production increased by 5.5% for the three months ended January 2012 compared with the three months ended October 2011. The main contributors to the 5.5% increase were coal, which contributed 2.4 percentage points and PGMs contributed 1.7 percentage points. Actual mining production was 2.4% lower for the three months ended January 2012 compared with the three months ended January 2011. The seasonally adjusted value of mineral sales at current prices reflected an increase of 11.3% in the fourth quarter of 2011 compared with...