By The mining sector in Africa has been faced with nerve wracking economic challenging, having not performed well in the previous fiscal quarter due to lower global demands in some minerals. The sector is now forced to abandon the use of coal for renewable energy.
Once again; the issue of global warming and renewable energy was at the centre of discussions during the Business Council for International Understanding (BCIU) and Prosper Africa African Minerals Forum on Monday, 23 September 2024.
President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the round table discussions where he told his audience that South Africa is committed in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impact of climate change. He said the current Government of National Unity (GNU) is driving key structural reforms and leveraging the strengths of key economic sectors such as mining, energy, and manufacturing and aims to improve the business operating environment and attract investment.
“We are advancing a Just Energy Transition Plan that will guide our shift from coal to renewable energy sources while ensuring equitable economic opportunities and social inclusion for affected communities.
South Africa’s and Africa’s critical minerals sector has a crucial role to play in this regard and we recognize the importance of collaboration with other countries to develop the potential of our critical minerals sector,” said President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Ramaphosa said South Africa is working on collaborating with the United States of America (USA) to bring their expertise on how to migrate from fossil fuel to renewable energy, advanced mining technologies and sustainable practices.
He said the South African government wants to strengthen its ties with US companies and institutions to foster technological advancements, enhance supply chain efficiencies and attract investment into the country’s mining sector.
“South Africa strongly endorses the United Nations Secretary-General’s position paper on Critical Energy Transition Minerals, where he highlights the importance of beneficiation, benefit sharing, local value addition and economic diversification.
It would not be an understatement to say that the minerals that lie beneath the soil of Africa are powering the green energy revolution. Thirty percent of the world’s proven critical mineral reserves are found in Sub-Saharan Africa,” said the President.
“South Africa has substantial reserves of platinum group metals, manganese, vanadium as well as chromium. These resources are fundamental to the development of cutting-edge technologies that drive progress in various sectors.
What will be critical is to ensure that this progress does not leave Africa behind. The extraction of critical minerals must not perpetuate colonial-era patterns of exploitation of the continent’s rich resources. As it stands, most African countries export critical minerals primarily in their raw form. By focusing on basic extraction and not on beneficiation and value-added processing of minerals, Africa is both missing out and losing out,” continued Cyril Ramaphosa.
According to President Cyril Ramaphosa, the mining sector has the potential to grow the regions GDP by 12 percent or more by the year 2050, this is estimated on select mineral extractions.
He said based on the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) estimates; critical minerals in the sector are expected to reach a total global market value of $16 trillion over the next 25 years.
“By some estimates African countries could generate USD 24 billion a year in GDP and create 2.3 million jobs from investing in mining beneficiation and domestic processing. We are making progress. By way of example, SASOL, our flagship petrochemicals company, is also a leader in green hydrogen technologies, including R&D.
As the global automotive industry moves towards Electric Vehicles and New Energy Vehicles, we are leveraging our rich experience with automotive production to get some of the world’s leading automotive manufactures with a footprint in South Africa to produce more their green vehicles in our country,” said Ramaphosa.
