FX.co ★ South Africa Mining Activity Suffers Surprise Setback

Mining production in South Africa fell by 5.4% year-on-year in May 2026, reversing a downwardly revised 8% increase in April and sharply underperforming market expectations of a 1.5% rise. This was the first decline in mining output in six months and the steepest contraction since February 2025.

Iron ore was the largest negative contributor, with production down 12.7%, shaving 2.1 percentage points off overall growth. It was followed by coal, which fell 6.1% (-1.5 percentage points), and platinum group metals (PGMs), down 4.4%. Output also dropped markedly for diamonds (-17.8%), other metallic minerals (-17.6%), nickel (-16.5%), copper (-14.3%), and other non-metallic minerals (-8.9%). By contrast, production increased for manganese ore (8.7%) and chromium ore (8.5%).

On a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, mining output declined by 5.2% in May, the sharpest fall since November 2025, following a downwardly revised 3.1% gain in April. Over the three months to May 2026, mining production contracted by 1.7% compared with the previous three-month period.