South Africa’s Critical Minerals and Metals Strategy must become a practical roadmap for beneficiation, industrialisation and regional development, State-owned mineral research organisation Mintek mineral processing executive manager Dr Lawrence Bbosa said in a keynote address at this year’s Mining Symposium 2026, co-hosted by industrial pumping solutions company Verder Pumps South Africa and laboratory equipment supplier Verder Scientific and held in Randburg, Gauteng, on May 21.

He highlighted that the global race for critical minerals had elevated the Southern African sector beyond mining, shining the spotlight on national and economic security, industrial competitiveness and technology development.

Bbosa outlined how South Africa’s critical minerals framework was developed for the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources using indicators such as export potential, employment creation, supply risk and industrial value-add potential, and stressed that the country’s mineral wealth created an opportunity to shift away from the traditional pit-to-port export model towards downstream beneficiation and regional manufacturing hubs.

“The whole idea is that we are trying to look beyond the value chain to be able to extend our involvement to the midstream and the downstream aspects of whatever constitutes critical minerals,” he said.

Bbosa also cited platinum-group metals (PGMs), manganese, chrome, coal and iron-ore as strategically important owing to their contribution towards employment, exports and domestic energy security.

Further, he added that South Africa and the broader Southern African region were uniquely positioned owing to their mineral endowment, particularly in battery minerals and PGMs, but warned that enabling infrastructure and policy certainty remained critical constraints.

Bbosa highlighted opportunities in battery precursor production, vanadium redox flow batteries, ferroalloys, stainless steel production and rare earth processing as areas where South Africa could build industrial capability.

Meanwhile, Mintek’s historical contribution to mining innovation includes carbon-in-pulp technology for gold extraction and metallurgical advances that unlocked the Upper Group 2 platinum reef in the Bushveld Complex, helping position South Africa as a leading PGM producer.

On sustainability, Bbosa said waste streams such as coal discard and fly ash could become future sources of critical minerals while also addressing environmental liabilities.

“The critical minerals strategy is ideally not just a strategy, not just a document, it now essentially has a formal definition, and it has a practical route to taking it to fruition,” he said.

Symposium host and Verder Scientific general manager Dylan Groves said collaboration between technology providers, researchers and mining companies was essential to solving operational challenges and accelerating innovation.

He said Verder’s scientific and industrial equipment divisions focused on developing practical solutions in partnership with customers across mining and related industries.

“We have a very simple purpose and vision within the Verder Group and that concept is enabling progress and, to enable progress, we need to be close to our customers,” Groves concluded.