The year 2018 has been a mixed bag of performance for South Africa’s mining industry, with bulk commodity prices continuing to rise during 2018 from the lows at the beginning of 2016, while precious metals continued to struggle, a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers said on Tuesday.
In the 10th edition of its SA Mine report, PwC said capital expenditure for the sector recovered from the lowest levels in ten years to reflect a 19 percent ncrease.
"In 2018 total market capitalisation of the 31 companies analysed in this report recovered to R482 billion (2017: R420 billion). Although it is a R62 billion increase on the previous year, it is still below the June 2016 level of R560 billion," PwC said.
Iron ore saw an increase of R40 billion from 2017 to 2018; increasing the commodity’s percentage share of capitalisation from 13 percent to 20 percent.Total revenue generated by the companies analysed for the financial year-end 30 June 2018 increased by eight percent or R28 billion from the prior year.
"With the Mining Charter now gazetted, it remains to be seen whether business and government can more effectively work towards a more stable South African mining environment," PwC said.
South Africa last week released a revamped mining charter aimed at increasing the ownership of non-whites in the industry.
- African News Agency (ANA)
