South Africa's Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe told attendees at this year's Africa Down Under conference, in Perth, Australia, on September 4, that the country's Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) had received 115 applications for funding from the department's R400-million exploration fund.

The fund, targeting junior and emerging miners, was established by the DMRE - which is in the process of being split into the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources and the Department of Electricity and Energy - and development finance institution the Industrial Development Corporation, in February.

Mantashe said the department was working to select the successful applicants who would receive funding.

Further, he appealed to other funders to join the initiative and provide additional funding for exploration by junior mining companies.

The Minister also moved to allay investor concerns about the need for black economic empowerment in the exploration stage.

“I want to demystify that here today. There is no such a requirement in our exploration charter," he said, calling on investors to take advantage of opportunities in South Africa's mining exploration.

Mantashe further reiterated that the department was still planning to roll out its new mining cadastre by June 2025.

“The embrace of the new system is very important because we want to deal with all the backlogs in mining licensing and exploration permits,” he said.

He also pointed out that the department was undertaking a study on the state of the mining industry in South Africa, which would consider several key factors, such as mining’s contribution to the economy and the performance and trends of each commodity in terms of production and exports.

Coupled with this strategy is the development of South Africa’s critical mineral strategy, which ranks critical minerals according to various methodologies, such as supply risk.

“There is a very strong case emerging out of these studies that the South African mining industry remains an attractive investment destination . . . We are convinced that, at the conclusion of this work, we'll have evidence-based answers on how to address challenges facing the sector and consequently demystify skepticism about South Africa's mining industry, which we describe as a sunrise industry, not a sunset industry,” he said.

He noted that while gold production had been decreasing in recent years, the country had ample platinum group metal and manganese resources that were critical for the world's future energy needs and net-zero ambitions.