South African mining production falls 18% y/y in Q1

South African mining production decreased by a worse-than-expected 18% year-on-year in the first quarter of this year, after slipping by an upwardly revised 8.3% in February, BNP Paribas Securities South Africa economist Jeffrey Schultz said on Thursday. The largest negative contributions in the first quarter were platinum-group metals (PGMs), contributing -4.55 percentage points; coal, contributing -4 percentage points; iron-ore, contributing -1.6 percentage points and gold, contributing -1.2 percentage points.