Eligible South African junior miners can access funding through the Junior Mining Exploration Fund (JMEF) to de-risk early-stage exploration projects. Increased exploration activity will help to boost investor confidence, with any new discoveries reinforcing the understanding that South Africa remains both “grossly underexplored” and also hosts high quality geology, says scientific research organisation Council for Geoscience (CGS) CEO Mosa Mabuza.

The JMEF is jointly implemented by development finance institution Industrial Development Corporation, the CGS and the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources.

“Phase 1 of the JMEF supports eight projects that are in different stages of development. Two of these projects have advanced to the reverse-circulation drilling phase, with another two transiting to the drilling phase. Phase 2 is under evaluation and is yielding a strong pipeline of promising projects.”

Second-call fund beneficiaries will be announced later this year.

Mabuza adds that the fund’s progress underscores the view that the primary constraint to local exploration is access to funding rather than a lack of quality, expertise or willingness from junior miners or explorers.

“Owing to the nature of the early-stage exploration and mining projects, incentives are needed to mitigate the risks that the juniors take. These incentives can be linked to the expenses incurred and discoveries they make.

“When juniors secure funding or have sufficient capital resources, then they access partial grant funding, that is properly managed, to achieve specific exploration-related outcomes, to ensure that the exploration activity will eventually translate into mine development.”

Once discoveries are made, every one of the eight projects will contribute to critical minerals mining, particularly for in-demand metals and minerals such as copper, nickel, rare-earth elements, gold, lithium and antimony, he elaborates.

The demand for these commodities and the resulting economic activity that exploration supports demonstrate that junior miners should be better supported through initiatives such as those of the JMEF, says Mabuza.

To that end, the CGS assists junior miners through the provision of technical and geoscientific data to support decision-making and unlock value across the mineral exploration pipeline.

This is evidenced by the CGS’s launch of its Virtual Core Library which helps junior miners, or any interested stakeholders or investors, to reduce investment risks by interrogating historical data at specific sites.

The CGS’s solutions offering also includes helping juniors progress their projects from early-stage desktop studies to feasibility assessments, in addition to technical support, to help attract investment for continued mineral exploration.

Mabuza adds that junior miners should also broadcast the various mineral intersections made during drilling activities to several markets, as this could unlock additional investment.

Junior-focused funding and investment initiatives will help junior miners remain resilient during the current period of geopolitical uncertainty, which, in turn, will allow for the realisation of a project pipeline for mine development and expansion, consequently supporting thousands of livelihoods through the known multiplier effect of mining operations, he adds.

“Juniors should take advantage of the current period of interest in critical minerals, which has been slightly overshadowed by current geopolitical uncertainties. When the dust settles, the accelerated demand for critical minerals will re-emerge . . . and the right time to explore is now,” concludes Mabuza.