20.04.2025
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SA’s minerals should be withheld from US: Mantashe

8 mins



  • Minister Gwede Mantashe addressing the Mining Indaba in Cape Town.

4 minutes

Minister of Minerals and Petroleum Resources Gwede Mantashe says Africa must use its rich mineral endowment as leverage against the United States and not fear the threats made. Mantashe was speaking at the 31st Invest in African Mining Indaba taking place this week in Cape Town.

The indaba’s various sessions are centred on critical issues impacting the continent’s mining sector and how to ensure Africa’s mineral wealth fuels its development.

Mantashe has made a call to investors to consider other minerals that the continent has and not just gold.

In his keynote address, he said the African continent hosts significant reserves of industrially important minerals such as manganese, copper, coal, nickel, cobalt, titanium, vanadium, lithium, and rare earth minerals.

He also used the opportunity to hit back at the United States’ threat to stop aid because of the expropriation law. He says minerals must also be withheld from the US.

“We have this standing threat that because you passed an Expropriation Act, therefore, Trump will withhold funding to SA and I said let’s not immortalise Africa. Let’s withhold minerals to the US. That is it. If they don’t give us money, let’s not give them minerals. But they take our minerals and say they are withdrawing funding. No, we have minerals in the continent and therefore we have something that we have. We are not just beggars. But we must just use that endowment for our benefit as a continent but if as a continent we are threatened and we fear everything, we are going to collapse, and we’ll collapse with minerals at our doorstep,” says Mantashe.

VIDEO| Minister Gwede Mantashe’s address at the Mining Indaba

 

Water crisis 

At its state of the mining nation press briefing, the Minerals Council of South Africa, said it is concerned about the growing water crisis. Council Chief Executive Officer Mzila Mthenjane says during 2024, several mining operations were disrupted by constrained water supplies.

He says it is a crisis that now demands urgent intervention.

“Water is a crisis and its something that we need to respond to very effectively, not only as an industry but also in partnership with government in the same way that we’ve seen a partnership on logistics, electricity as well as crime and corruption. With water, it has an impact at a regional level, when you combine all of these, it can very quickly become a huge national crisis. How the mining industry has been responding had been working with regional water bodies in terms of how we can help the financing of water infrastructure, of having it refurbished or at best have it replaced because a lot of this infrastructure is actually old,” says Mthenjane.

Contribution to GDP 

The council also launched its 2024 facts and figures pocketbook. It shows that last year, the industry reported a 6% increase in contributions to GDP for first to the third quarter, saw exports valued at around R800 billion, paid R42.6 billion in corporate taxes and also reported 42 fatalities.

Innovations 

Meanwhile, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, CSIR, says it has developed innovative solutions to the mining industry powered by artificial intelligence.

“We have a situation analysis awareness solution tool that also supports mining to be able to have ears and eyes across the mining industry. As you’re underground. it is able to mime decisions based on the environment that you’re seeing. But given that we also have cyber-attacks across the various industries, to also have cyber security solutions we have experts that support cyber security,” says CSIR’s Sibongile Ntsoelengoe.

Ntsoelengoe says the research council is also undertaking a global competitiveness study on critical minerals of which 30% sit in Africa and how the continent can leverage off them for breakthrough solutions.

 

The conference continues on Tuesday

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