Mining and Minerals in South Africa

Abstract

Although the mining value chain only accounted for around 13% of the GDP and 6% of employment in 2020, it remained a central link between the South African economy and international markets. As a result, it had an outsized impact on the production structure, income distribution, infrastructure and legal frameworks. After the transition to democracy in 1994, the value chain underwent significant changes, notably a shift away from coal into platinum, iron ore, coal and ferroalloys, and significant divestment by international mining companies. Still, deep-seated developmental challenges persisted, including limited mining-based industrialisation, the exercise of monopoly power within value chains, and deeply inequitable and oppressive payscales and work organisation. These structural weaknesses emerged clearly in the 2010s, as the end of the global metals prices boom (2002 to 2011) brought plummeting revenues, revealing a range of economic, workplace, and policy conflicts across the value chain.