Whereas every mineral is found to be critical for various reasons, the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources’ (DMPR’s) Critical Minerals and Metals Strategy has identified platinum, manganese, iron-ore, coal and chrome ore as “high-critical minerals” for South Africa, based on their criticality.
In a briefing regarding Cabinet’s approval of the strategy, as well as the approval for the publication of the Mineral Resources Development Bill (MRDB) of 2025 for public comment, Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe explained that the drafting of the strategy had started with adopting a robust methodology to determine the aspect of criticality of minerals.
This methodology was based on eight indicators including, among others, export potential, employment indicator, supply risk, export sales, domestic sales and substitutability. The strategy further identifies mineral commodities such as gold, vanadium, palladium, rhodium and rare earth elements as minerals with “moderate to high criticality”.
For the rest of this article: https://www.miningweekly.com/article/platinum-manganese-iron-ore-coal-chrome-ore-deemed-high-critical-minerals-for-south-africa-2025-05-20