May 2025 marked a pivotal moment for South Africa’s mining sector, with two significant developments. First, the Cabinet officially approved the country’s long-anticipated Critical Minerals Strategy, a roadmap to secure South Africa’s role in the international critical minerals supply chain and support the green energy transition. Secondly, the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources has published the Draft Mineral Resources Development Bill 2025, proposing significant amendments to the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act of 2002.
These developments are poised to impact mining operations, investor sentiment, and regulatory compliance. Below are the key elements of the Critical Minerals Strategy and the proposed legislative changes introduced by the Draft Mineral Resources Development Bill 2025.
In 2023, South Africa resolved to develop a clear roadmap to maximise the exploitation of minerals critical to its economy, which fostered regional cooperation and promoted economic growth. Although various countries have used the term ‘critical minerals’, there has been no universal consensus on the definition of critical minerals.
The Critical Minerals Strategy identifies the following key minerals:
High-criticality: Platinum, Manganese, Iron ore, coal, and chrome ore
Moderate-to-high criticality: Gold, Vanadium, Palladium, Rhodium, and rare earth elements
Moderate criticality: Copper, cobalt, lithium, graphite, nickel, titanium, uranium, phosphate, fluorspar, zirconium, and aluminium
When South Africa rolled out its Critical Minerals and Metals Strategy, it pointed out that the country holds 88 per cent of the world’s platinum group metals and 80 per cent of global manganese reserves, while its smelter count plunged from 12 to just 2 in the last five years.
The strategy labels PGMs, manganese, chrome ore, iron ore and coal as highly critical, with gold, vanadium, copper, cobalt, nickel and rare earths rated moderately to highly critical. It also introduces the Mineral Resources Development Bill of 2025 to speed up licensing, support small-scale miners and revise BEE requirements on prospecting rights.
The push to process more minerals locally rather than exporting raw ore is a shift that is the clearest path to sustainable jobs and steady government revenues, but it hinges on securing billions of rand for exploration and keeping energy and environmental standards on track. Pull it off and South Africa could lead Africa’s critical-minerals processing sector.
However, questions are being asked if Government owns the reality of the report and that without energy, infrastructure, the appetite to invest and a change in Government strategy, the Critical Minerals and Metals Strategy report will just remain what it is – a report.
