CRITICAL MINERALS AND METALS STRATEGY SOUTH AFRICA

South Africa's Critical Minerals and Metals Strategy aims to maximise the economic value of its vast mineral reserves—including PGMs, manganese, and vanadium—by shifting from raw ore exports to local beneficiation and high-tech manufacturing. The strategy identifies a specific list of high, moderate-to-high, and moderate criticality minerals and proposes six pillars of intervention: geoscience mapping, value addition, R&D, infrastructure/energy security, financial instruments, and regulatory harmonisation. It emphasizes the need to overcome domestic bottlenecks in energy and logistics, foster regional integration within Africa, and navigate geopolitical tensions, particularly China's dominance in the supply chain, to secure a role in the global green energy transition.

• South Africa holds dominant global reserves of several critical minerals, including Platinum Group Metals (88%), Manganese (80%), and Chromite (72%), with total ore reserves valued at over US$2.5 trillion.
• The country's mining sector is currently characterized by an upstream focus on extraction and export, with significant deficiencies in processing and manufacturing capacities that limit the capture of higher value-added benefits.
• Domestic exploration investment is severely lagging, with South Africa attracting only 0.92% of global exploration budgets in 2023, far below its target of 5%.
• The strategy classifies minerals into three criticality levels: High-Criticality (Platinum, Manganese, Iron Ore, Coal, Chrome Ore); Moderate to High (Gold, Vanadium, Palladium, Rhodium, Rare Earth Elements); and Moderate (including Copper, Cobalt, Lithium, Graphite, Nickel, Titanium, Phosphate, Fluorspar, Zirconium, Uranium, and Aluminium).
• Infrastructure deficiencies, specifically energy shortages and constraints in rail and port systems for bulk exports, are identified as the primary risks to the mining industry.
• The strategy proposes transforming South Africa into a regional hub for battery manufacturing and processing, leveraging its manganese reserves to produce precursor materials and cathodes.
• The ferroalloys industry has declined significantly, with the global market share for ferrochrome dropping from 39% in 2009 to 26% in 2019 due to high electricity costs and competition from China.
• South Africa aims to decarbonize its steel sector by utilizing green hydrogen, positioning itself as a potential hub for green hydrogen-based steelmaking.
• The strategy highlights the risk of China's dominance, noting that China controls over 70% of the global supply chain for various critical minerals, including REEs, lithium, cobalt, and graphite.
• Regional integration through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is viewed as a way to secure resources not available domestically, such as lithium and rare earth elements, by collaborating with partners like the DRC, Zambia, and Mozambique.

APA

Centre for Environmental Rights (n.d.). CRITICAL MINERALS AND METALS STRATEGY SOUTH AFRICA. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/DMPR-Critical-Minerals-Strategy-2025.pdf?x21779

Chicago

Centre for Environmental Rights. CRITICAL MINERALS AND METALS STRATEGY SOUTH AFRICA. n.d. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/DMPR-Critical-Minerals-Strategy-2025.pdf?x21779.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Centre for Environmental Rights |title=CRITICAL MINERALS AND METALS STRATEGY SOUTH AFRICA |url=https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/DMPR-Critical-Minerals-Strategy-2025.pdf?x21779 |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{centreforenvironmentalrightsndcritical, author = {{Centre for Environmental Rights}}, title = {{CRITICAL MINERALS AND METALS STRATEGY SOUTH AFRICA}}, institution = {Centre for Environmental Rights}, url = {https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/DMPR-Critical-Minerals-Strategy-2025.pdf?x21779}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }