Gold sales plummet by 12% in July
October 8, 2003
 By Quentin Wray
Johannesburg - Gold sales plunged 12 percent year on year to R3 billion in July but South Africa's total mineral sales in the month were rescued by a 2.5 percent increase in sales of non-gold minerals such as platinum, Statistics SA said yesterday.
Reporting on monthly mining production and sales, Stats SA said non-gold mineral sales came in at R7.5 billion in the month, bring in total sales to R10.6 billion - about 2.1 percent less than total sales in the same month of last year.
Comparing the three months May to June with the same period of 2002, gold sales were down 18 percent and non-gold sales were 14.2 percent lower. In this period, platinum sales were 25 percent down. This meant that total mineral sales were 15.4 percent off the total set last year.
Over the seven-month period from January to July, Stats SA said gold sales were 19.1 percent lower while sales of non-gold minerals were 12.6 percent down.
Between August 2002 and the same month this year, gold production fell 8.8 percent but non-gold production rose 9.7 percent.
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