South Africa continues to have an enviable metals and minerals endowment but very slow reform and communication at regulatory level is not allowing the return to match the endowment. Good policy is needed and not just policy certainty.
Critical minerals represent a massive opportunity but so little has been done to encourage exploration, even though discussing it has gone on for so long. We need to define which minerals are critical and take up the opportunities that those metals offer when it comes to beneficiation.
We see investors who expressed an interest in mining critical minerals in South Africa now doing so very succesfully in other very nearby mining jurisdictions. Moreover, coming with the mining is also major beneficiation and far greater participation along the value chain than one usually associates with mining companies. 