S. Africa's minerals

Press, 19 July 1976, Page 15

S. Africa's minerals

NZPA Johannesburg The total value of South Africa's mineral sales, including gold, exceeded 54600 m for the first time in 1975, a figure representing a 5.2 per cent increase over the previous year, the president of the South African Chamber of Mines. Mr R S. Lawrence, has disclosed. Mr Lawrence said that the 1 export value of asbestos, chrome, coal, fluorspar, manganese, nickel, and vanadium had increased substantially, but that this was mainly as a result of increased South African rand eamings in the aftermath of the September devaluation of the South African monetary unit. On uranium, Mr Lawrence said that a steady increase in output from South Africa to a level of 6000 tonnes or more a year could be expected. Last year’s 2809 tonnes of U3OO was not a pointer to the future, and Nufkor, the uranium industry’s marketing organisation, was beginning to show successes in renegotiating contracts with purchasers — mainly electric power utilities — to allow for unprecedented costs in mining since the early ’7os. South African coal production went up by 3 million tonnes to 69 million tonnes last year, and 2.7 million tonnes, valued at S43m, were exported.