Tau takes minerals beneficiation pitch to New York investors

Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau has proposed a dedicated Critical Minerals Investment Platform and a South Africa-USA Critical Minerals Working Group to convert foreign interest in the sector into processing, manufacturing and investment projects.

Tau put the proposal to a high-level Critical Minerals Roundtable hosted by Brand South Africa with Standard Bank, held on the margins of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York on Thursday. The roundtable drew senior representatives from Standard Bank, the Industrial Development Corporation, Bank of America, the B20 South Africa Secretariat, Eskom, Africa Rainbow Minerals, the Development Bank of Southern Africa and MTN. Brand South Africa chairperson Ipeleng Selele led the programme, and Standard Bank chief executive Sim Tshabalala presented on financing critical minerals and unlocking capital for Africa.

Tau told the gathering that the mechanisms would match South African critical minerals projects with US industrial demand, financing, technology and long-term offtake agreements. He said the country wants to move past discussion of its mineral wealth towards partnerships that build resilient supply chains and create greater value from resources mined here.

“We value this opportunity because the conversation we need to have today is not simply about minerals. It is about how South Africa and the United States can build more resilient supply chains, deepen industrial cooperation, mobilise investment and create greater value from the resources that South Africa possesses,” he said.

Central to the pitch is a shift away from raw material exports. “Our objective is to use this resource base to build durable industrial partnerships. We do not want to define the relationship simply as one in which South Africa extracts and exports raw materials. We want to build value chains that include mining, refining, processing, advanced materials, component manufacturing and, where commercially viable, downstream production,” Tau said.

The approach rests on the Critical Minerals and Metals Strategy approved by Cabinet in 2025, which places local processing and beneficiation, infrastructure, research and development and strategic partnerships at the centre of efforts to maximise the value of the country’s mineral endowment. Tau cited reserves and production capability in platinum group metals, manganese, chromium and vanadium, alongside opportunities in rare earth elements, titanium and zirconium.

He argued the two economies need each other in specific ways. The US is seeking secure and diversified sources of critical minerals, while South Africa needs investment, technology, skills, long-term offtake commitments and market access. “This creates the basis for a partnership in which both countries address a strategic economic need. South Africa can contribute mineral resources, processing capability, industrial infrastructure and access to regional value chains, while US companies can bring capital, technology, markets, industrial expertise and long-term demand,” he said.

On that basis, Tau said, the relationship should be built on co-investment rather than a traditional supplier arrangement. He named battery materials, vanadium products and electrolytes for grid-scale energy storage, platinum group metal-based products for the hydrogen economy, green iron and steel, ferroalloys, specialised metals, grid and transmission infrastructure, and emerging rare earth, titanium and zirconium value chains as potential areas for value addition. The emphasis, he said, must fall on projects that are commercially viable and capable of being financed, built and integrated into global markets.

The proposed investment platform would assess priority projects for development support, co-funding and investment, bringing together South African institutions such as the Industrial Development Corporation and other development finance institutions with US counterparts including the Development Finance Corporation, EXIM Bank, private funds and strategic corporations. “The objective should be to move projects through the investment pipeline - from project preparation and technical assessment, through financing and construction, to production and export,” Tau said. Long-term offtake agreements, he added, could strengthen the bankability of projects by providing secure demand for minerals or processed products.

The working group, if established, would identify priority minerals and products, match South African projects with US industrial demand, set out financing and technology requirements, address market-access issues and monitor progress towards investment and offtake agreements. Tau was direct about what he does not want it to become. “Our intention is that the work should begin immediately and should not become another dialogue mechanism without implementation. We need clear priorities, responsible institutions, timelines and measurable outcomes,” he said.

He also positioned South Africa as an anchor for a wider Southern African platform, pointing to complementary resources in the region: cobalt from the Democratic Republic of Congo, copper from Zambia, lithium from Zimbabwe and graphite from Mozambique. “South Africa can contribute processing capability, logistics, financial services, industrial infrastructure and access to the wider African market through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA),” he said. Regional cooperation, in his telling, would let countries develop value chains instead of exporting unprocessed minerals. The approach aligns with SADC’s industrialisation agenda, which includes regional value chains in critical minerals beneficiation alongside infrastructure development in energy, transport, logistics, water and ICT.

Tau framed the roundtable as a starting point rather than an end in itself. “We want to move from conversations about opportunity to discussions about specific projects, specific investors, specific technologies, specific offtake requirements and specific financing solutions,” he said, adding that South Africa wants to work with US companies seeking secure mineral and industrial inputs and with investors prepared to fund processing, manufacturing and infrastructure.

No timeline, funding commitment or formal response from the US government is recorded in the government’s account of the engagement. The proposals for the investment platform and the working group are put forward by the minister, and neither has been established on the record published here.

Source: SAnews (South African Government News Agency), Tau calls for SA-US partnership to drive critical minerals beneficiation