JOHANNESBURG – South Africa has formalised a strategic pivot toward industrial sovereignty, designating platinum, manganese, iron ore, coal, and chrome as the foundational “high-critical” minerals required to anchor the nation’s economic future. Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe confirmed on Tuesday that Cabinet has approved the Critical Minerals Strategy alongside the Mineral Resources Development Bill, a dual-policy thrust aimed at ending the colonial-era “pit-to-port” economic model. This legislative overhaul is designed to provide the regulatory certainty needed to boost South Africa’s share of global mining investment from a stagnant 0.82% toward a 5% benchmark.
The new strategy moves beyond simple extraction, integrating these commodities into a high-tech “ecosystem” that underpins the global transition to green energy and advanced manufacturing. By prioritising minerals essential for electric vehicles, hydrogen fuel cells, and microelectronics, Pretoria intends to position itself as a regional processing hub, leveraging the fact that Southern Africa holds over 30% of the world’s critical mineral reserves. The Minister emphasised that the classification list remains a fluid “living document,” subject to shifts in global geopolitics, technological substitution, and recycling capabilities, ensuring the domestic industry remains agile in a volatile global market.
Beyond the primary high-critical list, the framework identifies a secondary tier of minerals, including gold, vanadium, and rare earth elements, as having moderate-to-high criticality. A third group, comprising copper, cobalt, and lithium, is ranked as moderately critical. This tiered approach is intended to guide state intervention and infrastructure investment, particularly in beneficiation—the process of adding value to minerals before they leave the country. Mantashe noted that the domestic sector already contributes R201 billion to GDP and employs 457,000 people, but argued that capturing more of the value chain is the only path to sustainable job creation and skills development.
“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,” the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources stated in an official release. The statement further clarified that the Mineral Resources Development Bill seeks to “address key regulatory gaps, streamline licensing processes, and ensure equitable distribution of mining benefits” by ensuring raw minerals are transformed into higher-value products within South African borders.
The government’s industrialisation drive will extend into the energy sector this week with the scheduled launch of the South African National Petroleum Company (SANPC). This new state-owned entity, formed through the merger of PetroSA, iGas, and the Strategic Fuel Fund, is tasked with reducing the country’s precarious reliance on imported petroleum products. Coupled with plans to establish a dedicated mining school at the University of North West in Rustenburg, the twin policies represent a concerted effort to build a vertically integrated mineral economy that prioritises national security and local beneficiation over raw export volumes.
