South Africa needs to rally behind its local value-adding mineral beneficiation businesses that are taking the country into the new green era. One of those gems, Manganese Metal Company, is already the world’s largest producer of high-purity manganese metal and already a major exporter to Japan, the US and Europe.
In most First World jurisdictions, the Mpumalanga beneficiator would have received national incentivisation to enter the new high-purity manganese sulphate monohydrate production fray, as China has done on a grand scale. Battery electric vehicle and battery makers need certainty on high-purity manganese sulphate monohydrate to avoid single-country dependence and delays. With a relatively modest national incentive, Manganese Metal Company could already be on that merry way.
It is already earning close to R2.3-billion in export revenue, paying Eskom R522-million a year, and the South African Revenue Service close to R180-million a year. Green demand building up is so big that modest incentivisation could result in sizeable new growth and significant additional benefit to the South African economy.