Mining was the saving grace of the South African economy in 2017, according to Minister of Mineral Resources, Mosebenzi Zwane. “After two consecutive quarters of economic contraction – in the fourth quarter of 2016, and the first quarter of 2017 – GDP rebounded in the second and third quarters of 2017, growing by 2.8% and 2.0% respectively,” he said. “This expansion has helped allay fears of sustained economic recession and was driven in no small part by growth in the mining sector, which grew at 8.2% and 6.6% in the second and third quarters, and 5.2% year on year. In fact the mining industry was responsible for no less than 20% of the growth in this period.” He said in the mining sector the greatest contributors to this growth were copper, iron ore and platinum group metals (PGMs). Upbeat about the future of mining, Zwane said there was more than R220 billion worth of investments in the project pipeline including PGMs, industrial minerals, energy and nonferrous metals.
