\n South Africa\u2019s spending on mineral exploration has declined for a seventh straight year, underscoring persistent challenges in the country\u2019s efforts to revive its mining sector.\n <\/p>\n
\n Although the country remains Africa\u2019s largest exporter of mineral products, companies are progressively allocating smaller budgets to prospecting activities that help identify and develop future mines, Bloomberg reported.\n <\/p>\n
\n As a result, competing mining destinations, such as Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, are capturing a growing share of the exploration capital flowing into Africa.\n <\/p>\n
\n Exploration expenditure in South Africa fell 5.3% in 2025 to 738 million rand ($43.9 million), according to data released this week by the national statistics agency, calculated at 2015 constant prices.\n <\/p>\n
\n Over the past three decades, investment in exploration has plunged by more than 85%, the figures show.\n <\/p>\n
Industry warns of shrinking project pipeline<\/p>\n
\n The Minerals Council South Africa, the industry\u2019s main lobby group, recently warned that exploration is the \u201clifeblood\u201d of the mining sector.\n <\/p>\n
\n The continued decline in spending is \u201cdeeply troubling for our sector, and it needs urgent attention,\u201d the organisation said. Its members include major mining companies such as Valterra Platinum Ltd., Harmony Gold Mining Co., and Exxaro Resources Ltd.\n <\/p>\n
\n A weak junior mining and exploration segment is contributing to what analysts describe as the effective collapse of the industry\u2019s future project pipeline.\n <\/p>\n
\n In a recent report, Cape Town\u2013based Economic Research Southern Africa said the government could reinvigorate exploration by introducing tax incentives, creating a transparent database of available mining rights, and increasing funding for geological mapping.\n <\/p>\n
\n The Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources has already outlined a strategy aimed at reversing the trend. Published last year, the plan aims to increase South Africa\u2019s share of global exploration spending to 5%, up from its current level of less than 1%.\n <\/p>\n
\n Despite concerns over the long-term outlook, South Africa remains a key global supplier of several commodities, including coal, gold, iron ore, manganese, chrome and platinum-group metals. Reflecting the sector\u2019s continued importance, total mineral sales rose 7.3% last year to 861 billion rand.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Africa\u2019s spending on mineral exploration has declined for a seventh straight year, underscoring persistent challenges in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-329573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}