South Africa’s mining production grew 2.5% year-on-year in March 2026, slowing from a 9.7% surge in February and coming in below market expectations of a 4.1% increase. This was the weakest performance in the current four-month expansion, as growth eased across several key sectors, including PGMs (up 10.5% vs 52.3% in February), manganese ore (14.4% vs 27.8%), and nickel (10.5% vs 29.6%).
Output declined in a number of other categories: copper (-35.8% vs -42.7%), other non-metallic minerals (-16.8% vs -13.2%), coal (-9.6% vs -6.7%), other metallic minerals (-9.5% vs -0.1%), diamonds (-8.5% vs 13.1%), and iron ore (-2.7% vs -12.3%). By contrast, gold production strengthened, rising 17.1% after a 12.8% increase in February.
On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, mining production fell 5.1% in March, following an upwardly revised 3% gain in the previous month. For the first quarter of 2026 as a whole, mining output was 0.6% higher than in the fourth quarter of 2025.
