South Africa’s August mining production increased by 2.1% year-on-year, helped by a noteworthy 95.2% jump in copper production and a sizeable 27.2% increase in diamond output, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) reported on Thursday.

This indicated a sustained recovery in mining production in recent months, having followed a year-on-year production drop of 5.4% in June and a 1.2% improvement in July.

The increase in overall output was further bolstered by a 19.9% increase in chromium ore output, with the main contributor of the 2.1% increase being platinum-group metals (PGMs), which contributed 1.9 percentage points.

In contrast, August’s yield was dragged down by a year-on-year drop in iron-ore production, which reduced overall production by 2.2 percentage points.

Seasonally adjusted mining production decreased by 1.5% in August compared with July, following month-on-month changes of 3.5% in July and -1.5% in June.

Seasonally adjusted mining production increased by 3.9% for the three months to August, compared with the previous three months, chiefly on the back of a 3.9% increase in PGMs output, which contributed 2.7 percentage points.

Meanwhile, mineral sales recorded a marginal 0.3% year-on-year growth in July, with the highest positive growth rates recorded for manganese ore, at 51%, chromium ore, at 45.8% and nickel at 31.2%.

Stats SA reported that the major contributors to the 0.3% increase were PGMs, which contributed 3.1 percentage points; coal, which contributed 1.7 percentage points; and manganese ore, which contributed 1.4 percentage points.

"In addition, seasonally adjusted mineral sales at current prices increased by 1.9% in July compared with June, and follows month-on-month changes of 5% in June and -10.9% in May,” the organisation said.

Seasonally adjusted mineral sales at current prices decreased by 6.8% for the three months ended July, compared with the previous three months, and were largely driven by the sales value of gold, which contributed -5.3 percentage points.

This reduction was further helped by PGMs, which contributed -2.2 percentage points and other nonmetallic minerals, which contributed -1 percentage point.

Commenting on the statistics, the Nedbank Economic Unit said it expected total mining production to remain subdued in the coming months, constrained by poor growth prospects globally, while domestic factors, such as labour strikes and rising production costs, would also continue to have a negative impact.

"However, mining figures are volatile and, therefore, will have little influence on policy decisions in the short term. We expect the South African Reserve Bank to continue striking a balance between weak growth and rising inflation by maintaining its accommodative monetary policy stance well into 2014,” it commented.