SA’s critical mineral tag not just for clean resources, says Mantashe

04 February 2025 - 14:18
By Khulekani Magubane
Mineral and petroleum resources minister Gwede Mantashe at the 2025 Investing in African Mining Indaba.
Image: Supplied Mineral and petroleum resources minister Gwede Mantashe at the 2025 Investing in African Mining Indaba.

The mineral and petroleum resources department, with its aligned entities, has compiled research that has produced a list of critical minerals it plans to prioritise to resuscitate South African mining and the economy.

The department released findings of the study at the Investing in African Mining Indaba in Cape Town on Tuesday. The study found minerals including coal and precious group metals still had a long lifeline of exploration and operation in the South African market.

Mineral and petroleum resources minister Gwede Mantashe told delegates South Africa’s view of critical minerals will not be dictated by whether they are fossil fuels or “green minerals” but by whether the mineral will best aid the sector and economy.

“When we talk of critical minerals, let’s not limit them to the green economy. If we limit it we are going to use standards set by others and not our needs. That’s why, for example, you will find coal is becoming a critical mineral in Europe. For us it is a significant mineral.”

Markets around the world looking to revive or grow their mining sectors and related industries have placed emphasis on green, low carbon resources or minerals required for clean energy technology when compiling their critical minerals lists.

In contrast, Mantashe said coal would be regarded as a critical mineral on the basis of its prominence as an export product from the South African economy. Uranium was a critical mineral given the potential of nuclear energy.

Briefing delegates on the findings of the critical minerals study, Mintek CEO Molefi Motuku said South Africa remained endowed with enormous mineral reserves amounting to more than $2.5-trillion (R46.88-trillion), where PGMs were ranked first with 88% of reserves and manganese second with 80% of reserves.

“All the studies are work in progress. We have completed 16 commodity studies, primarily [on] minerals we have in South Africa. We just added lithium and graphite to understand that. We are working on inputs we have received and the draft reports are going through quality assessments.”

However, he said the price environment for commodities had become weaker, particularly with coal and PGM prices weakening from high levels seen in 2021 and 2022.

The gold price remained strong, supported by heightened investor demand, intensifying geopolitical uncertainty and sustained buying from central banks. The fall in mineral investment in the South African mining sector was on par with a fall in exploration budgets.

“Real investment in mineral exploration fell from R6.2bn in 2006 to R1.2bn in 2023. The decline has caused South Africa’s share of the global exploration budget to fall below 1% from 5% two decades ago.”

He said real investment in fixed capital decelerated in 2023 due to the softening of commodity prices and cost cutting by mining companies.

Higher education minister Nobuhle Nkabane urged the mining sector to pay attention to and invest in skills development if it hoped to enhance activity throughout the South African mining sector.

“Without appropriate skills there would be no mining. How then do we convene a conference this important without engaging the minister of higher education and training? We have a role to play as higher education and training. What we are doing is injecting resources in trying to invest in exploration with the funds that are there but not enough.”

Manganese Metal Company executive chair Bernard Swanepoel said the lack of beneficiation dogging South Africa is not due to a lack of skills, adding South Africa had some of the most skilled specialists in manganese in the world.

“Outside China, South Africa has the world’s experts in manganese beneficiations. Most of them are at the company I work for. These are the people who know how to make manganese better than anybody in the world. So skill is not a problem, we could make 10 times more if we fixed other things. We tend to get caught up in studies and we need to just start doing things.”

He warned that having the longest list of critical minerals in the world is also problematic and urged the government to defend South Africa’s platinum sector before it runs the risk of falling, similarly to South Africa’s gold sector.

Business Times