Alchemy reflects on the keynote address at the 2025 Mining Indaba

Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister, Gwede Mantashe, delivered the keynote address at the 2025 Investing in African Mining Indaba in Cape Town on behalf of President Cyril Ramaphosa. In his opening remarks, he mentioned that this is the 31st edition of the African Mining Indaba and spoke about how this year’s Indaba coincides with the 70th anniversary of South Africa’s Freedom Charter which declares that “the people shall share in the country’s wealth”, and that the Indaba is primarily about Africa’s mineral wealth and her people sharing in it.

Highlighting the theme of the Indaba – “Future-Proofing African Mining, Today,” intended to focus on the sustainability and economic growth in this sector, the Minister commented that South Africa, and by extension Africa, is sitting on the right real estate with an exceptional mineral endowment. He added that mining remains the bedrock of our economy and is without a doubt an attractive sector for new and greater investments. He went on to say that specifically the Platinum Group Metals (PGMs) segment will play a “catalytic role in sustaining the mining industry for many generations to come”. All of that makes perfect sense of course, but one has to bear in mind that, as Paul Miller noted a day before, “South Africa … developed a reputation as one of the hardest places in Africa to get an exploration or mining licence. Many investors simply gave up trying.” One can really hope that the Minister will do everything in his power to address this situation.

Mantashe spoke about the continent hosting significant reserves of industrially important minerals (manganese, copper, coal, nickel, cobalt, titanium, vanadium, lithium, and other rare earth commodities), and the need for Africa to assert its advantage and take ownership and charge of the growing demand for these. Africa is the world’s richest mining jurisdiction, yet the continent is poor and this needs to change.

He went on to deliberate the definition of critical minerals as regarded by developed nations and their importance in the energy transition but cautioned that they have ignored other value chains in their categorisation by excluding areas such as medical applications, the mobility sector, and the rapidly growing digital economy.

In contrast, in the development of South Africa’s critical minerals strategy, the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) partnered with Mintek and industry to evaluate the strategic importance of minerals and re-assess the criteria for the classification of these minerals and metals. This was completed and instead includes the alternative criteria of export significance, local economic significance, industrial importance, employment, and global economic demand. Mantashe believes critical minerals cannot be synonymous with only energy transition. He also listed South Africa’s top three critical minerals as PGMs, coal and gold (in that order). The draft strategy is earmarked for approval by the Cabinet before the end of this month.

He remarked that South Africa is home to 37% of the world’s manganese ore reserves, and as such we secure our position at the pinnacle of manganese reserve rankings globally. We also lead in manganese production, yet our beneficiation of this mineral sits at only two percent (2%) – something the country needs to turn around. However, this is dependent on a reliable electricity supply. (Interestingly, Mantashe did not elaborate on improvement in power supply in South Africa, or any other infrastructure such as transport, during the past year despite it being a key theme of last year’s keynote address.) He said the government is considering sustaining commodity-linked tariffs and applying incentives and other financial instruments to support and promote beneficiation. He highlighted the importance of local beneficiation to halt the export of jobs and profits out of Africa. Again, laudable intentions but the proof of the pudding will be in the eating (assuming of course we have guests to sit down to dinner…).

Mantashe recognised that there can be no mining or beneficiation without exploration, hence the commitment to turn South Africa into an exploration site. He noted the uptake in this arena since the launch of the country’s exploration fund at last year’s Mining Indaba. A further twenty projects will receive funding as part of the government’s small-scale mining fund between February and March this year.

Alchemy partner Morné van der Merwe is supportive of this notion of building on exploration in the mining sector to attract investment and gain traction. “The provision of funding is much-needed especially for artisanal or small-scale miners who struggle to get finance through the traditional banking structures,” he adds. “The government’s small-scale mining fund needs to be accelerated and made as accessible as possible in order to unlock new mining opportunities and drive economic growth.” However, private exploration funding will not find any standing in an investment environment where there is political instability, policy uncertainty and a sub-optimal title registration and administration system. It is due to a lack of these fundamental drawcards that the South African mining sector has been in decline for the past few years. Unless the fundamentals are fixed, the trend is not likely to change.

Mantashe further provided feedback on the commitment made last year regarding the new mining licence system and the progress being made on this and how the design and configuration phase is anticipated to be completed within the next few weeks. He also mentioned that the DMRE continues to clear the backlog in prospecting and mining applications.

Although he thanked the South African mining industry for their unwavering commitment to safeguarding the health and safety of mineworkers and acknowledged the lowest record of mine fatalities in the history of South African mining, he surprisingly didn’t provide any statistics nor mention the growing importance of environment, social and governance (ESG) principles that are instrumental for taking the industry to the next level.

He concluded his address encouraging the audience to leverage the opportunity we have of leading the G20 for a full one-year term and to shape a new era of the African mining industry that “meaningfully contributes to the socioeconomic development of our continent, and in building the Africa we want.”  

At Alchemy, we too, look forward to seeing the emergence of a new mining era that unlocks the continent’s wealth, is attractive to foreign investors, upholds zero harm, and promotes beneficiation to grow the greater African economy.

The one comment though that captured the attention of the world’s media, is something that was not in the official speech transcript – Mr Mantashe alluded to the announcement emanating out of the USA of suspending all funding to South Africa pending a thorough investigation, with a very emotional response.

As Tim Cohen, Daily Maverick editor, wisely puts it: “South Africa also has a fabulous mineral endowment, but it has a harsh mining legacy, something Mantashe, as a miner, knows all about. Overcoming that legacy and beneficiating that endowment is the challenge of our generation.”