AFTER a wave of illegal strikes that halted production in the mining sector for weeks, Statistics South Africa released figures showing the damage they had on the economy.

The figures showed that mining production went through a negative growth of 8.3% year-on-year in September.

The main contributor to the negative growth, not surprisingly, was the platinum group of metals (PGMs).

"The PGMs contributed -5.2 percentage points," said the report.

PGMs contribute 27% to the weight, while gold chirps 17.2%, coal 24.9% and the rest of the metals compose the difference.

"The highest negative growth rate was recorded for copper (-60.2%), followed by chromium ore (-27.3%) and PGMs (-17.8%)," read the report. It said the PGMs were the main culprits of the 8.3% negative growth.

Mohamed Nala, Nedbank resources analyst, said before the figures were released there was a consensus view that the industry would see a negative growth of -4.5%.

"The 8.3% negative growth shows that the sector is starting to feel the effects of the mining strikes and we are now going to see many jobs being lost in the sector," he said.

The total sale of minerals stood at R32-billion in August, compared to R30-billion during the same period last year. This was an increase of 5.8% year-on-year in August.

Nala said the sales increased during the strike due to demand and that the sector had piles of reserves underground.

"The highest growth rate was recorded for manganese ore (38.5%), followed by gold (34.0%) and chromium ore (15.3%)," said the report.