South African PGM production down 2.7 percent

South African platinum group metal production was down 2.7 percent for the three months ended November 2011 compared with the three months ended August 2011.

Statistics South Africa released its Mining: Production and sales report on Tuesday.

The poor performance by PGMs caused overall mine production to fall two percent. Over the same period, gold production was up 2.9%.

According to 2009 estimates, South Africa produces 80% of the world platinum, followed by Russia at 11%.

Implats announced in November 2011 that production dropped during Q1 due to planned operational outages.