South Africa Mining Output Posts Surprise Decline

2026-01-20 09:53 By Luisa Carvalho 1 min. read

Mining production in South Africa shrank by 2.7% over a year ago in November 2025, following an upwardly revised 6.1% rise in the prior month and defying market forecasts of a 3.9% advance.

This was the first decline in mining activity since April last year.

The biggest drags were coal (-7.9%, -2.1 points), iron ore (-7.6%, -1.1 points), PGMs (-2.8%, -0.8 points), and gold (-6.0%, -0.5 points).

By contrast, output increased markedly for diamonds (27.9%, +0.4 points), manganese ore (17%, +0.3 points) and other metallic minerals (14.9%, +1.1 points).

On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, mining production plunged by 5.9% in November, after an upwardly revised 2.7% rise in the previous month.

Seasonally adjusted mining production increased by 1.6% in the three months ended November 2025 compared with the previous three months.



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