South Africa and mining
South Africa, located at the southern tip of Africa, is a leading global player in the mining industry, contributing significantly to both the national economy and the world market. It has a rich geology that includes vital resources such as platinum group metals (PGMs), gold, coal, diamonds, and chromium. The Bushveld Complex is particularly noteworthy for housing about 80% of the world’s PGM reserves, making South Africa the largest producer of these metals, which are essential for various applications, including jewelry and industrial catalysts.
Gold mining, historically a cornerstone of South Africa's economy since the late 19th century, has seen a significant decline in production over the decades, now representing a smaller share of global output compared to its peak in 1970. Coal, on the other hand, remains a major energy source, providing approximately 77% of the country's energy and making South Africa the fourth-largest coal producer globally as of 2017. The diamond industry, historically monumental due to discoveries in the 19th century, continues to be a key sector, with South Africa ranked among the top producers.
In addition to these resources, South Africa is a significant supplier of chromium, manganese, and vanadium, showcasing its diverse mining capabilities. As the country navigates environmental challenges and seeks sustainable energy solutions, the mining sector remains integral to its economic structure and global standing.
Subject Terms
South Africa and mining
South Africa is one of the world’s leading mining and mineral-processing countries. In 2023, the mining industry accounted for 6.2 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). More than 70 percent of crude mineral products and processed mineral products by value were exported. About 484,000 people were employed in the South African mining industry. Other imports include ferrous metals and products, precious metals, diamond and other gemstones, coking coal, and nonferrous metals. South Africa has limited petroleum resources.
The Country
South Africa is located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa and is the most economically advanced country in Africa. Its economy has been heavily dependent on energy-intensive industries such as mining and manufacturing. In 2023, the gross domestic product of South Africa was $862.981 billion and the country ranked as the world’s thirty-third largest economy. The prominent land features in the country are a vast interior plateau rimmed by rugged hills and a narrow coastal plain. Key resources include platinum group metals, gold, coal, diamond, chromium, manganese, vanadium, nickel, antimony, iron ore, phosphates, tin, uranium, and copper.
Platinum Group Metals
Platinum group metals (PGM) mining is the largest mining industry in the country. In 2022, South Africa was the world’s leading producer of PGM. South Africa's Bushveld Complex holds about 80 percent of the PGM-bearing ore in the world, and as of 2022, about 80 percent of the world's mined platinum and 31 percent of palladium came from South Africa.
The platium group metals include a geochemically coherent group of siderophile to chalcophile metals such as osmium (Os), iridium (Ir), ruthenium (Ru), rhodium (Rh), platinum (Pt), and palladium (Pd). Platinum is the most important metal in the group. Large layered intrusions account for 90 percent of the world’s PGM resources. The Bushveld Complex in South Africa alone accounts for about 80 percent of all PGM resources; more than two-thirds of the total world production of PGM comes from the Bushveld Complex. Other significant producers of PGM are from Noril’sk-Talnakh deposits (Siberian Platform), the Great Dyke (Zimbabwe), and the Stillwater Complex (United States). The global demand for platinum is shared by four market segments: jewelry, autocatalyst systems, industrial, and investment. China and Japan are major consumers of platinum jewelry. The United States is the largest user of platinum and palladium in autocatalyst systems that convert harmful automobile emissions to water, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen. Alloys containing platinum have been widely used in many industrial processes and products such as refinery, magnetic hard disks, television tubes, fuel cells, glass fiber, and optical glass. The demand for PGM has increased steadily, and the worldwide PGM market is dominated by South Africa’s production.
Gold
South Africa’s share of world reserves of gold is about 14 percent. Gold mining is the second largest mining industry in the country. South African gold production peaked in 1970, when it accounted for 67 percent of world production. The long-term decline in the country’s gold output continued in the first decade of the twenty-first century. National gold-mine production decreased to 272.1 metric tons in 2006 from 294.6 metric tons in 2005, 337.2 metric tons in 2004, and 394.8 metric tons in 2001. The decline was broadly based and included each of South Africa’s five ranked gold producers. The South African share of world gold production was 27 percent in 1993, 15 percent in 2003, and had dropped to 2.8 percent by 2022. Overall, between 1993 and 2023, gold production in South Africa declined by 80 percent. On the other hand, China’s total gold production increased steadily over the same time period. In 2007, China overtook South Africa to become the world’s largest gold producer. By 2024, South Africa had fallen to ninth place.
In 1886, gold was discovered on the Witwatersrand ridge in South Africa. This discovery dwarfed all other previous gold discoveries and made South Africa the world’s leading producer of gold. Virtually all of South Africa’s gold is from the late Archean quartz-pebble conglomerates of the Witwatersrand basin. South Africa dominated the global gold market for most of the twentieth century; its production peaked in 1970. The South African mining industry pioneered methods and equipment for mine development and operation under extreme conditions of very deep mines. However, gold mining is highly labor intensive in South Africa. In 1997, each miner in South African gold mines produced about 2.4 kilograms of gold. In the United States, where production was mostly from surface mines and shallower underground mines, an average miner produced about 22.1 kilograms of gold.
Coal
Coal mining is the third largest mining industry in South Africa. More than 99 percent of the country’s coal output is bituminous coal. South Africa is Africa’s leading producer of coal and was the seventh-largest producer of coal in the world as of 2022. In 2014 and 2015, coal made up 27 percent of all South Africa's mineral sales. South Africa has only small deposits of oil and natural gas. Coal is the major energy resource in the country. In the past, South Africa had limited access to foreign oil because of international sanctions imposed on the country as a result of its policy of apartheid. South Africa’s economy is heavily dependent on coal. Coal provided about 84 percent of the country's energy as of 2023. Sasol, a partly state-owned company, has built several coal-to-liquids (CTL) plants and provides feedstock for nearly one-third of the country’s liquid fuels.
According to the World Factbook, in 2022 South Africa had proven coal reserves of 9.892 billion metric tons. Nearly 70 percent of recoverable reserves lie in three coal fields, Highveld, Waterberg, and Witbank. South Africa accounts for about 3 percent of world coal consumption. The majority of coal is used in electricity generation and the synthetic-fuel industry. Almost one-third of coal produced in South Africa is exported to the European Union (Germany and Spain), East Asia (Japan), and other countries.
South Africa’s economy is structured around large-scale, energy-intensive mining and manufacturing industries. South Africa’s energy sector contributes about 15 percent of the country’s GDP. Environmental concerns, including greenhouse-gas emissions, pose challenges to the continued use of coal as an energy source. Sustainable economic growth and rapid industrialization have led to increasing demand for alternative energy resources in the twenty-first century. The government and energy industries in South Africa plan to generate more electricity from renewable resources, promote energy-efficient lighting, and reduce the use of coal for energy.
Diamond
In the nineteenth century, diamond was among the most valuable of commodities per unit weight or size. Diamonds were mostly found in alluvial deposits in India and Brazil. In 1866, a South African Boer farmer’s son, Erasmus Jacobs, found a transparent in the sand bed of the Vaal River. This important discovery made South Africa a major diamond producer and changed the diamond industry. Cecil Rhodes moved to South Africa and founded De Beers Consolidated Mines, Ltd., in 1888. This consortium was established to control the production and sale of the world’s diamonds. Kimberley Mine, excavated in Kimberly, South Africa, was one of the early rich diamond mines brought into the De Beers syndicate. The hole is 495 meters deep and produced more than fourteen million carats of diamonds in its short life. The operation and discovery of diamond mines also helped geologists understand the genesis of diamond. The unique formation kimberlite was named after the South African town of Kimberly. Kimberlite is a potassic, ultrabasic, hybrid rock containing large crystals of olivine, enstatite, chromium-rich diopside, phlogopite, pyropealmandine garnet, and magnesium-rich ilmenite in a fine-grained groundmass. Kimberlites and lamproites have been considered primary sources of diamond. Diamond was originally formed in Earth’s 100 to 300 kilometers below the surface under extremely high temperature and pressure. Rapid upwelling of kimberlitic and lamproitic is thought to have brought diamonds to the surface.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, more than 90 percent of the world’s diamonds were produced in South Africa. With improvements in exploration techniques, more diamond mines were discovered in other countries. Major modern production occurs in Australia, Botswana, Russia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but South Africa remains a major producer. The country was still the world's sixth-largest producer of diamonds by value as of 2024. Potential production of gem-quality synthesized diamonds may influence the diamond market in the future. South Africa is one of the major producers of synthesized diamond.
Chromium
Chromium is a metal in demand for its alloying and refractory properties. Chromite is the only mineral of chromium. Nearly 70 percent of the world’s chromite reserves and 90 percent of the world’s chromite resources come from stratiform deposits. The layered complex of South Africa, the Bushveld Complex, accounts for the bulk of the reserves and resources. South Africa produced 7.9 million metric tons of chromite in 2022.
In 2024, China imported about 80 percent of its chromite from South Africa. South Africa was the world’s leading producer of ferrochromium for many years; China surpassed it in 2017, but South Africa remained in second place, producing 33 percent of world ferrochromium output. By 2024, South Africa had regained its place as the world's leading producer of chromium, producing 18 million metric tons that year. The chromium industry has attracted many foreign investors. African Rainbow Minerals Ltd. and its joint-venture partner Lionore Mining International Ltd. of Canada planned to open the Nkomati chromite mine. Hernic Ferrochrome (Pty.) Ltd., a subsidiary of the Mitsubishi Corporation of Japan, operated a ferrochromium plant and mined chromite at the Maroelabult open-pit mine and a new underground mine at Bokfontein. Tata Steel of India expected to open a ferrochromium plant at Richards Bay and to export most of the plant’s output to stainless-steel producers in Western Europe, South Korea, India, and Taiwan. Jiuquan Iron and Steel Company of China signed an agreement with International Ferro Metals Ltd. (IFM) to purchase nearly one-half of the production of a new ferrochromium plant in North West Province in South Africa.
Other Resources
South Africa has many additional world-class resources. The Bushveld Complex is the largest and most extensively studied layered intrusion. Significant amounts of resources, such as nickel, copper, vanadium, tin, fluorite, andalusite, and asbestos, have also been discovered and mined in the complex. The quartz-pebble conglomerate formation of the Witwatersrand basin not only is the world’s largest gold deposit but also is one of the world’s largest uranium deposits. Uranium is produced as a by-product of gold mining in Witwatersrand. All of South Africa’s uranium output has typically been exported, and enriched uranium has been imported for use in the Koeberg nuclear reactor.
South Africa was one of the world’s largest producers of manganese in 2024, producing about 7.1 million metric tons that year. South Africa was also a world leader in the production of vanadium and vermiculite.
By 2023, South Africa had become one of Africa's leading producers of iron ore. Also in 2023, South Africa saw its first annual increase in steel production since 2017. Its steel production rose by 10.6 percent to 4.9 million tons, according to the World Steel Association. Most of South Africa’s nickel mine production was a coproduct of PGM mining.
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