South Africa’s Vital Minerals and Metals Technique should turn into a sensible roadmap for beneficiation, industrialisation and regional improvement, State-owned mineral analysis organisation Mintek mineral processing government supervisor Dr Lawrence Bbosa mentioned in a keynote handle at this yr’s Mining Symposium 2026, hosted by laboratory gear provider Verder Scientific and held in Randburg, Gauteng, on Could 21.
He highlighted that the worldwide race for essential minerals had elevated the Southern African sector past mining, shining the highlight on nationwide and financial safety, industrial competitiveness and expertise improvement.
Bbosa outlined how South Africa’s essential minerals framework was developed for the Division of Mineral and Petroleum Sources utilizing indicators resembling export potential, employment creation, provide danger and industrial value-add potential, and harassed that the nation’s mineral wealth created a chance to shift away from the normal pit-to-port export mannequin in direction of downstream beneficiation and regional manufacturing hubs.
“The entire concept is that we try to look past the worth chain to have the ability to prolong our involvement to the midstream and the downstream facets of no matter constitutes essential minerals,” he mentioned.
Bbosa additionally cited platinum-group metals (PGMs), manganese, chrome, coal and iron-ore as strategically vital owing to their contribution in direction of employment, exports and home vitality safety.
Additional, he added that South Africa and the broader Southern African area had been uniquely positioned owing to their mineral endowment, significantly in battery minerals and PGMs, however warned that enabling infrastructure and coverage certainty remained essential constraints.
Bbosa highlighted alternatives in battery precursor manufacturing, vanadium redox movement batteries, ferroalloys, chrome steel manufacturing and uncommon earth processing as areas the place South Africa might construct industrial functionality.
In the meantime, Mintek’s historic contribution to mining innovation contains carbon-in-pulp expertise for gold extraction and metallurgical advances that unlocked the Higher Group 2 platinum reef in the Bushveld Complicated, serving to place South Africa as a number one PGM producer.
On sustainability, Bbosa mentioned waste streams resembling coal discard and fly ash might turn into future sources of essential minerals whereas additionally addressing environmental liabilities.
“The essential minerals technique is ideally not only a technique, not only a doc, it now basically has a proper definition, and it has a sensible path to taking it to fruition,” he mentioned.
Symposium host and Verder Scientific basic supervisor Dylan Groves mentioned collaboration between expertise suppliers, researchers and mining corporations was important to fixing operational challenges and accelerating innovation.
He mentioned Verder’s scientific and industrial gear divisions targeted on growing sensible options in partnership with prospects throughout mining and associated industries.
“We now have a quite simple function and imaginative and prescient throughout the Verder Group and that idea is enabling progress and, to allow progress, we have to be near our prospects,” Groves concluded.
