FRIDAY - 25 SEPTEMBER 2026
Edition: South Africa
Diesel c/l wholesale
  • 0.05% Gauteng 2,911.11 293.90
  • 0.05% Coast 2,823.91 293.90
  • 0.005% Gauteng 2,955.51 314.90
  • 0.005% Coast 2,868.31 314.90
  • Next adjustment 7 Oct 2026
As at 2 Sep 2026 · Source: DMPR
Pay Dirt The operations desk for surface mining · Southern Africa
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Editorial standards

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Contents 12 sections

Every figure in Pay Dirt comes from a source we have read. Every piece is checked against those sources and approved by a named editor before it is published. This page sets out the rules we work to and how to tell us when we get something wrong.

These standards apply to every article, glossary entry, briefing and data piece on this site. Pieces are bylined “Pay Dirt editors”.

Sources

We go to primary sources first. These include:

  • the Government Gazette and the Acts and regulations published in it
  • the South African Revenue Service (SARS)
  • the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources (DMPR, formerly the DMRE)
  • the Mine Health and Safety Council and the Minerals Council South Africa
  • Statistics South Africa and the United States Geological Survey (USGS)
  • published standards and equipment manufacturers’ performance handbooks
  • papers published by the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (SAIMM) and university texts

Wikipedia never counts as a source. We may use it to find a primary source, and then we cite that source.

Every figure carries the date it applies to and a link to where it came from. Each piece lists its sources at the foot of the page. Where we cannot verify something, we leave it out.

Worked examples use numbers we have chosen to show a method. They are labelled “illustrative” and are never presented as data from a real site.

Fact-checking and independent review

Before a piece is approved, a checker who did not write it reads every sentence against the recorded sources. Each figure, date, rule and formula is matched to the source it came from. Anything that cannot be matched is corrected or removed.

Use of AI

Research and drafts for Pay Dirt are prepared with AI assistance. Every piece is fact-checked and approved by a named editor before publication. Nothing is published by software.

Approval by a named editor

A piece is published only when a named editor has read it and approved it. The approver and the date of approval are recorded for every piece. A piece that has not been approved stays unpublished.

Updates

Prices, rates and rules change. When they do, we update the piece, change its “last updated” date and record what changed. The monthly diesel price is published as a new page each month, so earlier months stay available as a record.

Corrections

When we find an error, or a reader reports one, we correct the piece and add a dated correction note at the foot of it. The note says what was wrong and what we changed. We do not remove errors without saying so.

Pay Dirt’s publisher is named in the small print at the foot of every page. A small number of articles link once to a resource on the publisher’s website where it helps the reader with the next step. The link is described plainly, like any other reference. Articles do not promote products.

Independence and competitors

We do not compare named software vendors or recommend one over another. When an equipment manufacturer or software vendor makes news, we report it neutrally, from the source, as we would any other news. Equipment manufacturers are named only where a reader needs the name to identify a machine, a handbook or a standard.

Regulation and tax

Pieces about laws, regulations, permits or tax carry a note near the top. It gives the date the rules were read, in this form:

This explains the rules as published on [date]. It is not legal or tax advice; check your own position with an adviser.

We link to the source text of every Act, regulation and SARS rule we summarise.

Data pieces

Some pieces may report operations figures across many sites. These use only aggregated, anonymised figures. No site, customer, machine or person can be identified from them, and every figure is approved by the publisher’s chief executive before it is published. Each data piece explains how its figures were built.

Quotes and people

We quote a person only with their written approval of the exact words we publish. We never write a quote for someone. A recognisable person, site or machine appears in a photograph only with permission. When we summarise someone else’s work, we use our own words, link to it and quote a short phrase at most.

Reporting an error

If you think something on Pay Dirt is wrong, tell us through the contact page. Please name the page, the sentence and, where you can, the source that shows the correct version. We read every report and reply to say what we have done.