PERTH (miningweekly.com) – South Africa's Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) would present the business plan for a State-owned mining company to Cabinet next week, Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu said on Wednesday.

The business plan would include operational aspects, as well as its future prospects, she told Mining Weekly Online on the sidelines of the Africa Downunder conference in Perth.

"I will say that one of the objectives is to make sure that the State-owned mining company can acquire strategic commodities in South Africa, but also that it can partner with companies that wish to participate in other projects."

The State miner would initially focus on strategic commodities such as coal and uranium, "because they impact directly on the energy supply in South Africa", but would not be limited to those commodities.

"I think it is necessary for South Africa to grow its secondary economy, and if that requires a particular mineral, we will participate in that area. If we think that it is important for the State-owned mining company to have platinum, because the secondary economy wants to be involved in the catalyst business, then that might be a route because we would then be focusing on the value adding."

Meanwhile, Shabangu noted that the South African government would continue to look at investments in beneficiation, or value-adding industries.

"We will definitely be looking at that, if we are saying that beneficiation is an important part of the development of the country, we can't expect someone else to do that, we have to set an example."

She noted that if South Africa was looking to extract the maximum benefit from its natural resources, it had to encourage beneficiation investment.

"There is a need to increase value addition to our resource before they are exported, and this is in line with government's new industrialisation prioritisation," she added.