Mine safety issues hit gold output
January 10, 2008
Johannesburg - South Africa's gold production fell by 12.7 percent for the year to November, Statistics South Africa said on Thursday.
By comparison, total mining production declined by 6.4 percent over the same period.
In its releasing of mining production and mineral sales figures for November, Statistics SA said total mining production declined by 6,4 percent in November 2007 compared with the same month in 2006.
Gold production, after seasonal adjustment, declined by 8.1 percent in the month between October and November alone, while total mining output increased a fractional 0.8 percent.
"Shaft closures due to safety concerns affected mining production in both October and November," said Stats SA, which added that the impact was mostly felt by the platinum group metal (PGM) sector in October and by the gold sector in November.
PGM production, after seasonal adjustment, dropped by 7.6 percent from September to October, but picked up again in November when a 6.3 percent rise was tabled.
In October, year-on-year gold sales fell 2.8 percent to 3.29 billion rand, sales of non-gold minerals decreased by 3.8 percent to R14.09 billion and total mineral sales lost 3.6 percent to R17.38 billion. Seasonally adjusted gold sales at R3.33 billion represented a 21.6 percent climb from the previous month, and reflect the benefits of a stronger gold price, Stats SA said.
By comparison, seasonally adjusted non-gold sales fell 4 percent to R14.3 billion.
The total seasonally adjusted value of mineral sales at current prices for the three months ended October 2007 reflected a decrease of 4.9 percent compared with the previous three months. This drop of R2.75 billion was attributed to an 8.5 percent decrease in the sales of gold and a 4.1 percent decrease in the sales of non-gold minerals.
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