New York – Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau has called for stronger South Africa-US cooperation on critical minerals, urging American companies to invest in processing, manufacturing and infrastructure rather than treating South Africa solely as a source of raw materials.
Speaking at a Critical Minerals Roundtable on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly on 24 September, Tau said South Africa wanted to develop industrial partnerships that create greater value from its mineral resources.
“Our objective is to use this resource base to build durable industrial partnerships,” Tau said.
“We do not want to define the relationship simply as one in which South Africa extracts and exports raw materials.”
South Africa has significant reserves and production capabilities in platinum group metals, manganese, chromium and vanadium, while also identifying opportunities in rare earth elements, titanium and zirconium.
Complementary resources and capabilities
Tau said the country wanted to move further into refining, processing, advanced materials and manufacturing, with potential opportunities including battery materials, vanadium products, PGM-based products, green iron and steel, ferroalloys and grid infrastructure.
“For South Africa, the opportunity is to attract investment, technology, skills, long-term offtake commitments and market access that enable us to move further up the value chain,” he said.
Tau proposed establishing a South Africa-US Critical Minerals Working Group to identify priority minerals and products, match South African projects with US industrial demand and address financing, technology and market-access requirements.
He also proposed a Critical Minerals Investment Platform involving South African institutions such as the Industrial Development Corporation and US partners including the Development Finance Corporation and EXIM Bank.
The minister said the proposed cooperation could extend across the Southern African region, citing complementary resources such as cobalt from the Democratic Republic of Congo, copper from Zambia, lithium from Zimbabwe and graphite from Mozambique.
“The region has complementary resources and capabilities,” Tau said, adding that South Africa could provide processing capacity, logistics, financial services and access to the wider African market through the African Continental Free Trade Area.
Tau said the focus should now shift from discussions to projects that can attract financing and be integrated into global supply chains.
“We want to move from conversations about opportunity to discussions about specific projects, specific investors, specific technologies, specific offtake requirements and specific financing solutions,” he said.
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
