South Africa at pivotal point in evolution of its mining industry, says Minerals Council

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Mining built South Africa once. With clarity, confidence, and coherent policy, mining can help to build South Africa's future again – and do so inclusively.

A successful and growing mining industry will expand the economy through the industrial benefits of upstream and downstream multiplier effects on jobs, corporate tax, PAYE, export earnings, VAT collections, as well as enabling the installation of much-required infrastructure.

South Africa must therefore favour market-friendly policies and incentives that share risk and reward while reducing unnecessary restrictions that undermine sector competitiveness and investment confidence.

Encouraging signs are emerging such as the Financial Action Task Force removing South Africa from its grey list and S&P Global upgrading the country's credit rating. Lower inflation expectations will temper interest rates, reducing debt costs. Combined, this is signalling progress coming from government and business partnerships to rebuild investor confidence and sentiment.

However, sentiment alone is not investment. Confidence in the South African economy must translate into concrete commitments to infrastructure, mineral development, exploration, research and development, and skills pipelines that future-proof the industry, the economy and this country's broader society. Essential to attracting this investment is the pace of critical structural reforms that will encourage and sustain private-sector investment and participation in key areas of the economy.

These are among the many vital points made by Minerals Council South Africa CEO Mzila Mthenjane in a thought-leadership article shortly ahead of next week's crucial Investing in African Mining Indaba in Cape Town from February 9 to 12.

South Africa, Mthenjane emphasises in the article to Mining Weekly, is at a pivotal moment in the evolution of its mining industry – "a sector whose historic power and economic influence shaped not just the structure of cities like Johannesburg but the social and economic architecture of South Africa itself".

The legacy of more than a century of mining created cascading employment effects, built infrastructure, generated foreign exchange earnings, and underpinned entire communities.

Yet today, as South Africa approaches its fourth decade of democracy, this country's mining industry faces the dual challenge and opportunity of redefining its place in a modern and technologically driven economy through skilled employees and shaping an inclusive society.

Mthenjane pinpoints the expansion of mining production as the real multiplier of broad-based economic impact and social progress that mining brings and not high prices as the central truth that must guide this country's mining strategy.

The mining sector accounted for 5.8% of GDP (nominal) in 2025, a significant source of economic activity but it is lower than 6.2% in 2004, indicating it is simply not realising its full potential, hampered by decades of logistics and energy constraints and inconsistent regulatory changes which have negatively affected investor confidence. Concerted interventions through a public-private partnership model, Operation Vulindlela 2.0, headed by the Presidency, are addressing fundamental bottlenecks, but more and focused efforts are needed to realise the aspired 3% growth rate in the short term.

While commodity price cycles may temporarily boost tax revenue and underpin the mining industry's contribution to the economy, what really drives employment creation and sustainable development of the country is sustained production growth. It is output that stimulates manufacturing and requires an expansion of utilities and general infrastructure and strengthens upstream and downstream supply chains, thus stimulat...