South Africa's national accounts are drawn up according to a UN standard known as the 1993 system of national accounts (1993 SNA).
An account, in this context, is a tool that records, for a given aspect of economic life, the uses and resources or the changes in assets and the changes in liabilities and/or the stock of assets and liabilities existing at a certain time.
The transaction accounts include a balancing item, which is used to equate the two sides of the accounts (resources and uses).
While the 1993 SNA does not explicitly include the development of environmentally orientated statistics, the UN has a system for integrated environmental and economic accounting (SEEA) to provide a conceptual basis for implementing a 1993 SNA (satellite) system for integrated environmental and economic accounting. These are referred to as natural resource accounts (NRA).
NRAs is a system dealing with stocks and changes to natural assets. It is used in the sense of physical accounting as opposed to monetary accounting.
The SEEA describes the relationships between the natural environment and the economy. This is achieved by linking conventional economic accounts with environmental accounts and NRAs.
The purpose of SEEA is to support integrated social, economic and environmental policy through an integrated information system.
On Monday, Statistics SA released the first NRA for minerals. The data range from descriptions of extraction, changes in inventory, years to depletion, employment figures and the resources rent to the monetary accounts.
Resource rent is a measure of the scarcity value of extractive resources in total.
These accounts are also important for analysing and evaluating trends in the economy over time. This report contains the first official estimates for the NRAs for minerals for the years 1980 to 2001.
While there were 55 commodities produced in 2001, the release covers only three: gold, platinum and coal. These were chosen because of their contribution to gross domestic product (GDP).
Information was collected from 62 coal, 39 gold and 12 platinum operations. In 2001, the mining sector contributed R67.3 billion to the total GDP.
However, the value added generated by mining fell 1.3 percent in 2001 from 2000. The coal industry fell 0.6 percent, while gold mining fell 7.5 percent.
The report details the inverse relationship between tonnage extracted and years to depletion. For example, in 1980, gold production was 675.1 tons with 70 years to depletion versus 394.8 tons and 89 years in 2001.
Platinum production increased from 114.3 tons in 1980 to 129.8 tons in 2001. At 2001 extraction rates, platinum reserves can last for another 484 years.
Coal extraction rose from 115 million tons in 1980 to 223.5 million tons in 2001. At current rates, there are 246 years to depletion versus 511 years in 1980.
Over the course of the next year, Stats SA will develop environmental statistics by publishing NRAs for other focus areas.
Pali Lehohla is statistician-general and head of Stats SA. For more information on Stats SA and its statistical outputs, including this week's release of the natural resource accounts for minerals, visit www.statssa.gov.