South African State-owned mining company African Exploration Mining and Finance Corporation (AEMFC) is actively searching for partnerships with South Sudanese mining companies, according to an announcement it made in June.

The announcement was made during the Africa Energy and Mining Business Forum at the South Sudan Oil & Power 2023 event, held at the Radison Blu Hotel in Jabu, South Sudan, on June 16.

“Our approach is to acquire public–private partnerships,” said AEMFC corporate strategy and planning GM Moroasereme Ntsoane, adding “. . . that is the level of cooperation we are looking to pursue”.

He also urged entities outside that collaboration to also approach AEMFC, or any company in the mining space in South Africa, to pursue partnerships.

“We believe in partnerships not only at a company-to-company level, but also with the local communities in which mining activities actually take place,” Ntsoane added.

South Africa is home to Africa’s largest and most sophisticated mining industry, as well as the largest known global reserves of platinum-group metals, manganese, chromite and gold.

Meanwhile, South Sudan is in the early stages of building its mining sector, hoping to leverage rising demand for critical and industrial minerals to harness estimated domestic reserves of copper, gold, diamonds and limestone.

“What we are looking to do with our partners in South Sudan is not only the valuation of minerals, but also adopting a much broader collaborative approach,” he said.

This, said Ntsoane, included looking at issues around capacity building, making key improvements to the regulatory environment, using South Africa’s experience in mining and making sure that role-players in the country collaborated with partners in South Sudan to render an attractive environment for investors.

He stated it was no longer purely a matter of coming in and simply digging minerals out of the ground.

Additionally, in a presentation preceding the Africa Energy and Mining Business Forum, South Africa’s Council for Geoscience expressed significant interest in geothermal exploration activities in the East African region.

This, in particular, was highlighted as South Sudan neighbours the East African Rift System, which is estimated to hold over 10 000 MW of geothermal potential.