South Africa’s mining production and mineral sales fall in July - Jacaranda FM

AI desk brief

South African mining production fell 7.5% y/y in July 2026, with PGMs the biggest drag (-13.5% production, -3.2pp) and gold also weaker. Over the three months to July, mining output was down 5.5% and gold production fell 4.6%, indicating softer precious-metals supply from a key producing region.

Mineral sales at current prices dropped 5.6% y/y, led by a 33.4% decline in gold sales, which contributed -8.5 percentage points to the overall fall. The data point to broad-based weakness in South African mining, but for metals traders the key takeaway is the negative gold and PGM supply signal.