South Africa is the next destination for precious technology minerals, which could increase the country’s competitiveness on a global scale and open up investment opportunities to both local and foreign investors.

1. South Africa is the next destination for precious
technology minerals, which could increase the
country’s competitiveness on a global scale and
open up investment opportunities to both local and
foreign investors.

2. • The country will now join the largest extractors of ‘tech’
minerals, China, America and Australia, in digging up massive
sites and start mining production, within the next years,
at Steenkampskraal, mined by Anglo American during the
1950s, and Zandkopsdrift, described as the world’s next big
strategic metal mine, both located in the Northern Cape.

3. • The demand for rare-earth minerals, primarily used in
modern devices, has been on the rise since the past
decades. Discovered in Sweden 225 years ago, rare-earth
metals, comprising of 17 chemical elements in the periodic
table, were used in military and defence applications, as well
as devices (smartphones, laptops and flat screens) and,
more recently, green technologies.

5. • Steenkampskraal will be mined by Canadian company Great
Western Minerals Group, while the Zandkopsdrift site will be
developed by Frontier Rare Earths, headquartered in
Luxembourg. Both these companies raise funds on the
Canadian TSX bourse.
• If it all goes according to plan, Steenkampskraal mine is set to
start production as soon as next year. Production at
Zandkopsdrift, which has a million tons of rare-earth minerals,
is scheduled for 2015, according to Frontier Rare Earth’s
chairperson, Philip Kenny.
• Rare-earths consultant Jack Lifton said that these mines are
good quality deposits, but South Africans are not attracted by
rare-earth minerals as it is the case in other countries, notably
China, which produces up to 97% of global rare-earth metals.

7. • He said South African investors are concentrated on gold, platinum,
base metals and diamonds. However, the digging of rare-earth
minerals in South Africa could offer some good long-term investment
opportunities.
• Although China is likely to remain the world’s leading producer of rare-
earths, South Africa could supply about 10% of the world’s rare earths
by 2015, competing on the global markets, concluded Kenny.

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