Even as Nigeria struggles to develop her mining industry, Mining production decreased by 8, 7 percent year-on-year in February, Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) has said.
StatsSA said the largest negative growth rates were recorded for iron ore, building materials, manganese ore and platinum group metals.
Gold was a significant positive contributor, contributing 1,8 percentage points, StatsSA said.
Seasonally adjusted mining production increased by 1,3 percent in February 2016 compared with January 2016 and by 2,2 percent in the three months ended February 2016 compared with the previous three months.
Meanwhile, mineral sales also decreased by 1,5 percent year-on-year in January.
The largest negative contributors to the decrease of 1,5 percent were iron ore, manganese ore, and chromium ore.
StatsSA said three minerals with significant positive contributions were gold, platinum group metals, and ‘other’ non-metallic minerals.
Seasonally adjusted mineral sales at current prices decreased by 3,9 percent in January compared with December 2015.