Johannesburg, Mar 15 (IANS): South Africa's mining production, one of the country's pillar industries, decreased by 1.9 per cent year-on-year in January, official data showed.

The latest figure represents that the country's mining production has experienced contraction for 12 consecutive months, according to the Statistics South Africa.

Juan-Pierre Terblanche, chief survey statistician at the department, said on Tuesday that the platinum group metals (PGMs) and diamonds were the two biggest factors that mainly contributed to the production decline in January. The output of PGMs decreased by 15.2 per cent and that of diamonds dropped by 15.5 per cent, Xinhua news agency reported.

The mining industry also produced less nickel, copper and manganese ore than it did a year ago, Terblanche said.

In contrast, iron ore and coal were the two significant positive contributors to the mining output, which went up by 12.1 per cent and 4.1 per cent, respectively, data from the department showed.

Despite the drop in production, South Africa's mineral sales at current prices increased by 6.8 per cent year-on-year in January, with the largest positive contributors being coal, gold, chromium ore and other metallic minerals.