‘ SOUTH AFRICA’ S GRADE IS UNCOMFORTABLE READING’
AFRICAN BUZZ •
‘ SOUTH AFRICA’ S GRADE IS UNCOMFORTABLE READING’
Exploration is the lifeblood of mining. Without it, there is no pipeline of new projects and no long-term future for the sector. Yet Stats SA data shows real exploration expenditure of just R738-million in 2025( R781-million in 2024), down from a peak of R6.2-billion in 2006. That is not a cyclical dip; it is a structural failure that must be urgently fixed.
By Minerals Council South Africa
The Fraser Institute’ s 2025 Annual Survey of Mining Companies is, in effect, a report card on how mining investors see countries like ours. South Africa’ s grade is uncomfortable reading: the geology is worldclass, but the policy environment is keeping investors away.
If South Africa wants growth, jobs and stronger community outcomes from mining, it needs a regulatory regime that is predictable, practical and globally competitive.
That warning lands as the industry waits for the revised Mineral Resources Development Bill( gazetted in May 2025). In its first form, the Bill did not create the certainty and incentives needed to attract fresh capital. Mining projects run over decades; without policy stability, investment stalls – and with it, employment, procurement spend, exports and tax revenue.
This year, more respondents said they were familiar with South Africa than in previous editions, comfortably above the survey’ s cutoff threshold. So, while any ranking has limits, the overall message is difficult to dispute: investor confidence has weakened. That aligns with what Minerals Council members – who produce about 90 % of South Africa’ s minerals by value – experience daily.
South Africa has more than a century of mining history and an extraordinary endowment: the world’ s largest known deposits of platinum group metals, chrome, manganese and vanadium, alongside sizeable gold, iron ore, coal and industrial minerals. The Northern Cape is widely regarded as highly prospective for minerals critical to the global energy transition and technological advancement.
In short, the resource base is not the problem, South Africa’ s policy choices are.
The Fraser Survey often places South Africa in the second or third quartile for mineral potential if“ optimal policy” is assumed. That qualifier is doing heavy lifting. With the right rules, South Africa would be a serious destination for exploration and new mine development. Without them, it misses the opportunity to participate meaningfully in the fast-growing critical minerals supply chain.
There are positive moves. The Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources( DMPR) and the Industrial Development Corporation have set up a R400-million exploration fund, and Anglo American has added a further R600-million. But we should be honest about the scale: South Africa needs roughly R12- billion in exploration spend every year to attract global interest and capital.
For more than a decade, South Africa’ s policy perception in the Fraser surveys has been grim, rarely escaping the bottom quartile over the past 15 years. The economic trend tells the same story. In 2010, mining contributed 8.6 % to GDP; by 2025, it had fallen to 6.2 %.
In 2025, South Africa ranked 64 out of 68 jurisdictions on policy. That reflects, in part, the uncertainty created by the first iteration of the MRD Bill – uncertainty that the department moved quickly to reduce by removing onerous black economic empowerment requirements in prospecting applications. It was a necessary adjustment. It is also a reminder that when policy is unclear or swings too far, investors simply choose other countries.
The Minerals Council has engaged extensively with the DMPR to create the best possible outcome for an Act that will attract and sustain investment in the mining sector. The test is simple: does the final Act create legal certainty and workable processes that attract investment, while advancing transformation and sustainable development in ways that can be implemented and enforced?
Capable and transparent implementation and administration of the Act by the DMPR is another area that needs attention.
The fix cannot sit in one law alone. South Africa needs a genuine one-stop shop for mineral rights and related approvals across government – mineral resources, water and sanitation, forestry, fisheries and environment, and agriculture – so timelines shorten and decisions are consistent.
The mining sector also needs the long-awaited mining cadastre, already piloted in the Western Cape. A modern, transparent cadastre would streamline applications, reduce opportunities for corruption, and make mineral-right ownership and locations clear. It is a practical reform that would bring South Africa closer to international best practice – and it would immediately improve confidence, particularly in exploration.
Because the Overall Investment Attractiveness Index weights mineral attractiveness and policy perception 60:40, weak policy performance keeps pulling South Africa down.
www. africanmining. co. za African Mining Publication African Mining African Mining • June 2026 • 5