With critical minerals essential for the success of global plans to green the planet, South Africa must help itself and the rest of the world by fast-tracking the search for these minerals. Far too little, if anything, has been done so far by South Africa to meaningfully uncover lithium, graphite, nickel, cobalt, copper, and rare earth endowments, whereas virtually every other mining jurisdiction has already successfully outlined critical mineral resources.
In fact, these countries are now pushing for mining projects to be built at pace. Moreover, the governments of these countries have assisted by cutting red tape, which is unfortunately still very tightly bound around South Africa’s big-six search. Meanwhile, some have been lucky enough to find critical minerals on old mine stockpiles that date back to the days when lithium and rare earths were not the sought-after commodities that they are today.