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South Africa will overhaul its mining regulations to attract more investment and ensure greater value addition from its mineral wealth, Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister, Gwede Mantashe, said on Monday as he opened the Investing in African Mining Indaba in Cape Town.
Mantashe said the government had finished developing its Critical Minerals Strategy, first announced in 2024, and had begun implementing it as part of efforts to strengthen Africa’s position in global supply chains and assert greater sovereignty over strategic resources.
“A central pillar of this strategy is the review of our regulatory framework,” he said. South Africa aimed to create rules that are “more certain, more predictable, and more transparent” while ensuring that mineral wealth is shared equitably.
As part of the reforms, the government has removed Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) requirements at the prospecting stage to stimulate early-stage exploration.
Mantashe said this was a pragmatic step recognising that exploration is a high-risk phase where value has not yet been proven.
“This change is designed to stimulate exploration, increase South Africa’s global share of exploration investment, and ultimately expand the pipeline of future mines,” he said.
The minister said new geological data pointed to substantial untapped mineral potential and highlighted progress from the state-supported Junior Mining Exploration Fund (JMEF), including drilling for rare earth elements in the Free State.
He said the second round of funding had attracted 80 applications targeting minerals such as tin, tungsten, uranium, fluorspar and lithium.
Mantashe invited delegates to the launch of a new Virtual Core Library by the Council for Geoscience, describing it as a national initiative that would improve access to geological information and make the country more attractive to investors.
He also cited ongoing investment in the mining sector, including the opening of new operations such as West Wits Mining’s Qala Shallows gold mine, Arnot OpCo’s open-cast colliery, Seriti’s Naudesbank colliery, Ivanplats’ Platreef mine and Ikoti Coal’s underground operations.
Between February 2025 and January 2026, South Africa granted 358 prospecting rights and 32 mining rights, which Mantashe said demonstrated continued investor confidence.
The minister also praised improvements in mine safety, reporting 41 fatalities in 2025, the lowest on record and down from 42 deaths in 2024, though he said “one life lost is too many.”
The Mining Indaba, the continent’s largest mining investment conference, is taking place against a backdrop of heightened geopolitical competition for Africa’s mineral resources and calls for African countries to coordinate their strategies and avoid what Mantashe described as a “race to the bottom” in dealings with global powers.
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