Articles
Weekly, open-access analysis on how beneficiation, manufacturing and industrial capability can grow from South Africa’s mining sector. Reports are sold separately; articles remain free to read.
Why beneficiation policy fails when it treats every mineral the same
South Africa's beneficiation mandate applies a uniform logic to commodities with fundamentally different metallurgy, market structures, capital requirements and competitive positions.
South Africa's ferrochrome problem is an electricity problem
Ferrochrome smelting remains structurally competitive only when tariff trajectories, reliability, and furnace utilization are modeled together rather than separately.
Four rare-earth feedstocks that do not require a new mine
Several African rare-earth opportunities derive from existing operations and waste streams rather than greenfield mine builds.
Manganese processing is where supply security starts to matter
The market still rewards ore exports more than chemistry. That should change as battery-grade manganese and alloy demand grow.
Graphite projects need practical purity, not only headlines
The next wave of graphite investment will be determined by contamination profiles, downstream conversion routes, and logistics assumptions.
Why platinum hub builds take longer than the project headlines suggest
The challenge is not demand alone; it is engineering complexity, permitting time and the downstream economics of refining.
Copper smelter projects need constraint analysis, not optimism alone
The viability question for copper processing is less about reserve size and more about power, sulfur handling and market access.