Although the announcement of a 30% tariff on all exports from South Africa to the US could have a serious impact on the platinum group metals (PGMs) sector, Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau remains confident that PGM resources may be the critical leverage needed in some of the trade discussions that will emerge out of the current turmoil.

He did, however, note that some tariff exemptions to certain South African minerals would apply, although he could not be certain at this stage if PGMs were on this list.

“We don't have full confirmation of the exclusions. There are critical minerals that we know the US has a particular interest in and would consciously exclude, and we have to plan in such a way that we [take that] into account,” Tau told delegates at the 2025 PGMs Industry Day, in Johannesburg, on April 3.

Subsequently, the Minerals Council South Africa confirmed that PGMs were indeed exempted from the tariffs.

Meanwhile, Tau said manganese, uranium, chrome, coal and fluorspar, as well as the scrap of these materials, along with stainless steel scrap, were confirmed to be among those metals and minerals excluded from the tariffs.

“This tells us that the tariffs are more targeted than what we had initially assumed. This global shift has challenged us to reimagine how we harness our resources. It is not a time for retreat, but for reinvention, a call to pivot from technologies of the past to those of the future.

“We have the unique opportunity to transform challenges into avenues for growth by investing in alternative applications for our PGMs, in particular, [in] emerging clean energy technologies,” he said.

If PGMs were not to be exempt from tariffs, it would be another blow to the already ailing PGMs market, which had suffered from low prices and a drop-off in demand of late, but Tau said there was potential for the revitalisation of the industry in the development of green hydrogen and implied that this could be achieved without the US.

“Our recent trip to Japan, led by Deputy President [Paul Mashatile], has demonstrated this exact point. In Japan, we found reliably and respectful partners that are willing to work with us to expand our collaborative areas in developing green hydrogen and its associated value chains.

“Recognised as a catalytic sector that can unlock massive economic growth, green hydrogen is central to the transition to net zero energy systems. In South Africa's vast renewable energy resources, land, wind, solar and hydro power, and our global concentration of PGMs, we have a strategic advantage to become a global producer of green hydrogen,” he said.

He said the State aimed to stimulate local demand and build robust domestic markets for green hydrogen, and develop local industrial capability.

“Our focus includes ramping up production of fuel cells, electrolyzers and ammonia, capitalising on our PGM resources to build a competitive industrial base,” he said.

Tau said that, if the industry were to overcome what he believed would be a “tumultuous four years ahead”, the industry would have to combine expertise and resources to drive a solutions-orientated agenda.

“It’s the sort of times that we need to think about how we turn the lemon into lemonade, and there certainly are opportunities to turn the lemon into lemonade, and PGMs fit snugly into that opportunity,” he said.

Tau defended President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration’s lack of efforts to visit Washington to smooth the increasingly rocky diplomatic relationship with the Trump administration, saying it was because the government had been waiting for Trump’s tariff announcement.

“Many people are asking us, so why is [Ramaphosa] not sending you guys to go to the US? One of the things we were waiting for was April 2 because we knew that the US was going to make a set of announcements on tariffs.

“Therefore, it is important that we assimilate what the US has presented . . . to be able to then develop a response . . . taking into account what that reality is. Otherwise we would have gone to the US, come back, and things would have changed, and we would have had to catch a flight back to the US [again] . . . to try and engage on . . . a new set of circumstances,” Tau explained.