Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe. Photo: Felix Dlangamandla/Gallo
South Africa has identified platinum, manganese, iron ore, coal and chrome as the critical minerals key to economic development, creating jobs, driving industrialisation and boosting national security, Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe has said.
Mantashe said on Tuesday that cabinet had approved both the country’s critical minerals strategy and the Mineral Resources Development Bill, two documents key to ensuring policy and regulatory certainty in the sector as well as maximising the country’s potential in the global market for minerals.
He said the list of critical minerals would be constantly reviewed and updated in line with underlying market conditions, exploration, technological advancement, substitutability, recycling, and geopolitics.
“The strategy does not view critical minerals in isolation; instead, they are treated as part of a larger ecosystem that drives essential technologies such as electric vehicles, hydrogen fuel cells, wind turbines, battery storage systems,microelectronics and advanced manufacturing,” Mantashe added.
The strategy identifies six pillars for the development and beneficiation of critical minerals close to the point of production.
It lists gold, vanadium, palladium, rhodium and rare earth elements as minerals with moderate to high criticality, and copper, cobalt, lithium, graphite, nickel, titanium, phosphate, fluorspar, zirconium, uranium and aluminium as those with moderate criticality.
Mantashe said value addition would boost GDP, create jobs and develop skills, noting that South Africa attracts 0.82% global investment in mining against a target of 5%.
The local mineral sector employs 457 000 people mining 53 different minerals across 1700 mines, contributing R201 billion to GDP.
Platinum group metals account for 81% of total sales in mining while coal remains critical to the country’s energy mix, generating more than 80% of electricity and employing close to 100 000 people.
The critical minerals strategy and Mineral Resources Development Bill seek to avoid a historic dynamic of pit to port where the Africa continent mines minerals and exports them in their raw form, Mantashe said.
“We are launching this strategy to deal with this issue finally as a continent. We are going to export the definition to the continent,” he said, adding that the strategy would position South Africa as a mineral processing regional hub and attract investment and localisation in the lithium and vanadium battery value chain.
According to the mineral and petroleum resources department, more than 30% of global critical minerals such as copper, chrome, vanadium, lithium, graphite and platinum group metals can be found in Southern Africa.
Mantashe said plans were under way to open a mining school at the University of North West, and establish the institution in Rustenburg at the heart of the mining sector.
“This focus ensures that minerals with the highest potential to drive economic and industrial growth are prioritised which then provides guidance in determining the criticality of specific mineral commodities,” he said.
The mineral and petroleum resources department is seeking public comment on the Mineral Resources Development Bill.
It is also expected to launch the South African National Petroleum Company on Friday as a state-owned company to further the country’s plans to build a refinery and reduce dependence on imported petroleum products.