the mineral industry of south africa 1998 42 1 s outh a frica by george j coakley mining and downstream minerals processing remained keystones economy republic in with population 43 4 million had gross domestic product gdp per capita 6 800 based on purchasing power parity estimates for total exports all goods valued at 30 9 billion gold accounted 14 other metals about an additional 28 including through semimanufactured products more than 500 000 jobs employment sector however declined to 464 900 from 603 700 1994 97 cutbacks were mines most important commodities produced terms value coal platinum group pgm ferroalloys ferrochromium ferromanganese ferrosilicon ferrovanadium aluminum steel iron ore diamond vanadium copper additionally significant output metallic included antimony chromite cobalt lead manganese nickel silver titanium uranium zinc zirconium
