{"id":878613,"date":"2026-10-07T13:08:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T11:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=878613"},"modified":"2026-10-07T13:08:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T11:08:18","slug":"new-mining-project-that-could-power-south-africa-for-500-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/878613\/new-mining-project-that-could-power-south-africa-for-500-years\/","title":{"rendered":"New mining project that could power South Africa for 500 years"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Steenkampskraal Monazite Mine (SMM) in the Western Cape has officially launched Phase 1 of its monazite concentrate plant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This initial phase involves crushing and milling ore to produce a concentrate for export, with shipments scheduled to begin before the end of 2026 under secured offtake agreements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The launch was initiated by Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources, Gwede Mantashe, along with other officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phase 1 is the first step in a three-phase roadmap that includes monazite cracking (Phase 2) and the separation of individual rare earth oxides (Phase 3).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steenkampskraal contains about 14.5% total rare earth oxides and 2.1% thorium, making it the highest known rare earth grade in the world, roughly ten times richer than a typical global deposit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This opening signifies South Africa’s transition from research and laboratory breakthroughs to commercial mineral processing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

SMM’s collaboration with the national research institution Mintek previously positioned South Africa as the first African country to produce high-purity mixed rare earth products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rare earth elements are often referred to as the “vitamins of the economy” because they are critical to electric vehicles, electronics, defence systems, telecommunications, renewable energy, and advanced manufacturing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to SMM\u00a0Executive Director Robbie Louw, the deposit contains about 14,000 tonnes of thorium, which has an electricity-generation potential roughly equivalent to 55 billion tonnes of coal for power stations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a mature, closed thorium fuel cycle, supplying electricity at roughly South Africa\u2019s current national level would consume only about 30 tonnes of thorium a year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On that basis, Louw said Steenkampskraal\u2019s resource alone represents about 500 years of current South African electricity generation.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Longer-term plans also extend to thorium beneficiation and medical-isotope production, including energy production technology and medical applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thorium daughter products are being assessed for targeted alpha therapy in cancer treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is the first commercial step on a road South Africa has already proved it can walk,\u201d said Steenkampskraal Monazite Mine Executive Chairman Enock Mathebula. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn June, we produced high-purity mixed rare earth products and became the first African country to achieve this through a partnership between a mine and a national research institution, Mintek.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mathebula said that the plant now turns science into a saleable monazite concentrate, and that the ministers\u2019 presence signals to the market and communities that beneficiation is no longer a slogan at Steenkampskraal and production has started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa needs additional reliable energy generation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

SMM Executive Director Robbie Louw said that South Africa needs additional reliable energy generation to provide baseload and strengthen the grid as wind and solar increase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Louw agreed that Steenkampskraal provides the country with a strategic indigenous thorium energy resource and a pathway to greater fuel-cycle sovereignty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe proposal is to use Koeberg to qualify thorium fuel, then deploy it progressively in a new nuclear fleet, including Thyspunt, and to anchor a South African thorium-fuel industry in domestic demand before looking to the export market, which will include India and the world\u2019s light-water reactor fleet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He explained that SMM has partnered with Thor Energy, which is an international thorium-fuel developer, whose oxide fuels have undergone irradiation testing in the Halden research reactor in Sweden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Louw has urged the government to take the following steps with the company:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • “Continue structured engagement so that the government and SMM share a view of the resource\u2019s national strategic value across rare earths, thorium, and industrialisation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Connect existing national capabilities, Mintek, Necsa, Eskom and the relevant departments, and identify where they can be strengthened.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Use government relationships to support technology transfer, investment and market access with partner countries and international companies.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Evaluate the rare-earth and thorium pathways jointly, including the regulatory, technical and commercial steps required.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Build, from that relationship, towards a shared roadmap for downstream processing, nuclear fuel development, industrialisation, and access to global markets.”<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    He said that the strategic prizes are separated oxides and, in time, thorium products for energy and targeted alpha cancer therapy, which relies on partnerships.
    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The Steenkampskraal Monazite Mine has officially launched Phase 1 of its monazite concentrate plant, which could bring a new supply of electricity generation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":878636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2107790301297332722","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2229288241224908","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18100898606056717","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9874],"tags":[255,26737,26736],"class_list":["post-878613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-energy","tag-minister-of-mineral-and-petroleum-resources","tag-steenkampskraal-monazite-mine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=878613"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":878754,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878613\/revisions\/878754"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/878636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}