Pretoria - Income generated by the mining industry rose from R393.4 billion in 2012 to R419.5 billion in 2015, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) said.
Presenting the Mining Industry 2015 report on Wednesday, Stats SA said the total income for the mining industry had increased by 2.2% per annum.
Comparing 2012 and 2015, large increases were reported for coal and lignite (R21.9 billion), manganese (R6.8 billion) and diamonds, including alluvial diamonds (R6.4 billion).
However, large decreases were reported for platinum group metal ore (R15.5 billion), iron ore (R7.4 billion) and gold and uranium ore (R3.3 billion).
“Mpumalanga had the largest income from sales of goods in the mining industry in 2015 with R114.4 billion (or 28.8% of the industry total). The province with the second largest income from sales of goods was North West (R84.7 billion or 21.3%),” noted the report.
This was followed by the Northern Cape (R69.5 billion or 17.5%), Limpopo (R45.3 billion or 11.4%) and Gauteng (R44.9 billion or 11.3%).
North West had the largest income in 2012, followed by Mpumalanga, Northern Cape and Gauteng.
The report, however, noted that total employment in the mining industry had declined.
“Total employment (mine employees, employees of subcontractors and employees through labour brokers) in the mining industry declined from 538 000 in 2012 to 490 000 in 2015,” said the report.
This was a loss of 48 000 jobs.
The biggest losses in jobs were recorded in mining of gold and uranium ore.
In terms of mine employees, the North West province was still the largest contributor to persons working in the mining industry (133 000 or 37.8%). – SAnews.gov.za
