Income

The total income for the mining industry in 2019 was R552,1 billion. The total income represents an increase of 5,4% per annum over the income reported in the corresponding survey of 2015 (R448,1 billion). ‘Mining of coal and lignite’ earned the largest share of income (R156,1 billion or 28,3%), followed by ‘mining of platinum group metal ore’ (R153,7 billion or 27,9%), ‘mining of iron ore’ (R65,3 billion or 11,8%) and ‘mining of gold and uranium ore’ (R63,4 billion or 11,5%).

Comparing 2015 and 2019, large increases were reported for ‘mining of platinum group metal ore’ (+R44,8 billion), ‘mining of coal and lignite’ (+R22,7 billion), ‘mining of manganese ore’ (+R16,3 billion) and ‘other mining activities and service activities incidental to mining’ (+R8,2 billion). However, ‘mining of gold and uranium ore’ reported a decrease
(-R0,6 billion).

Between 2012 and 2019, the ‘mining of coal and lignite’ group gained the biggest percentage share of income (+3,9 percentage points) (from a percentage contribution of 24,4% in 2012 to 28,3% in 2019). The ‘mining of gold and uranium ore’ and ‘mining of iron ore’ groups each lost the biggest percentage share of income over the same period (‑5,5 percentage points in each case).

Employment

The total number of persons employed in the mining industry as at the end of June 2019 was 514 859. This represents an increase of 0,2% per annum over the employment recorded in 2015. In 2019, ‘mining of platinum group metal ore’ employed the largest number of persons (198 574 or 38,5%), followed by ‘mining of coal and lignite’ (108 717 or 21,1%) and ‘mining of gold and uranium ore’ (101 993 or 19,8%).

Employment in the mining industry declined from 538 144 in 2012 to 514 859 in 2019 (a loss of 23 285 jobs). The biggest losses in jobs were recorded in ‘mining of gold and uranium ore’
(a loss of 42 091 jobs), ‘mining of platinum group metal ore’ (a loss of 8 190 jobs) and ‘other stone quarrying, including stone crushing and clay and sandpits’ (a loss of 4 249 jobs). The biggest gains in jobs were recorded in ‘mining of coal and lignite’ (a gain of 17 112 jobs) and ‘other mining activities and service activities incidental to mining’ (a gain of 5 081 jobs).

Provincial estimates

The province with the largest income from sales of goods in the mining industry in 2019 was Mpumalanga with R137,3 billion (or 26,0% of the industry total). The province with the second largest income from sales of goods was Limpopo (R106,2 billion or 20,1%), followed by North West (R106,1 billion or 20,1%) and Northern Cape (R98,7 billion or 18,7%).

However, the largest contributor to salaries and wages was North West (R28,7 billion or 27,0%), followed by Limpopo (R22,5 billion or 21,2%), Mpumalanga (R19,7 billion or 18,7%) and Gauteng (R14,8 billion or 14,0%).

In terms of employment, North West was the largest contributor with 150 003 (29,1%) persons working in the industry, followed by Limpopo (110 319 or 21,4%), Mpumalanga (94 804 or 18,4%) and Gauteng (69 965 or 13,6%).