South Africa targets key mining registry by end of March

Bloomberg News | June 9, 2026 | 9:29 am Regulatory Issues Africa Chrome Coal Gold Iron Ore Palladium Platinum Rhodium

Conveyor for sorting rock and raw materials at a mining enterprise. Conveyor designs at a diamond mine in South Africa. Stock image.

South Africa expects to fully launch a long-awaited database of mineral rights within 10 months, according to a senior official.

The country’s government has frustrated investors by pushing back the implementation of the so-called cadastre, an online registry that displays mining and prospecting rights. Companies will use the new system to apply for licenses.

“We recognize that we have to move with speed,” Jacob Mbele, Director-General of the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources, said at a conference in Johannesburg on Tuesday. The government has “set ourselves a target” to migrate all nine South African provinces into the cadastre by the end of March 2027, he said.

Only the Western Cape, the province with the least mining activity in South Africa, has so far been incorporated into the system, according to Mbele.

South Africa’s mining lobby remains wary of regulatory shocks

South Africa is a major producer of gold, iron ore, coal and platinum-group metals. While the nation remains the continent’s top exporter of mineral products, there’s faster growth and more dealmaking in the mining sectors of nations such as Guinea, Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“Many other countries don’t have the complexity that we have,” Mbele said, underscoring how long commercial mining has been taking place in South Africa. “There’s a lot of data to move from the current system to the cadastre.”

The government appointed a consortium of firms to build the new system in January 2024. Major companies with operations in South Africa include Valterra Platinum Ltd., Exxaro Resources Ltd. and Gold Fields Ltd. The establishment of the cadastre is considered especially important for boosting investment by junior and exploration mining firms.

Also on Tuesday, the mining industry’s main lobby group, Minerals Council South Africa, criticized a new industrial strategy published by the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition. The organization singled out proposals to introduce taxes and quotas on exports of chrome ore, and to attach “beneficiation” — or additional processing — conditions to decisions on allocating mining licenses.

The latter “could potentially damage future investments in exploration and mining,” the lobby group said in an emailed statement.