In South Africa, the government’s minerals and metals processing strategy is beginning to take shape thanks to its policy of creating value chains in the mining industry. To bolster local production and processing, the country has developed a jewellery manufacturing centre in Johannesburg, providing all stakeholders with an ecosystem to produce and export more efficiently.
Having been toppled by Ghana from its position as Africa’s leading gold producer in 2022, South Africa is taking initiatives to promote local production and processing of precious metals and stones for export. These include the creation of the Jewellery Manufacturing Centre in Johannesburg, inaugurated on 21 March 2024. Located in the Gauteng Special Economic Zone, the centre covers an area of 3,000m2 and aims to stimulate the mining ecosystem by bringing together mining producers and jewellers.
“First step is that we need more South African mining houses to bring their products here instead of sending them overseas to refine. If we get that right, we have enough capacity here so already there is enough demand. We have to deliver the products we are sending unrefined to other destinations to this special economic zone.”
Fikile Majola, Deputy Minister, Department of Trade and industry – South Africa
Since the post-Covid economic recovery, South African exports of precious and non-ferrous base metals have risen considerably. According to official figures, gold production rose to 100,000 tonnes in December 2023, with a total value of USD 22.7 billion. This represents an increase of almost 9.6% on the previous figure of 89,000 tonnes for December 2022. Experts would like to see this performance applied to other products such as platinum, silver and diamonds, which together account for just over 16% of total mining production.
“There is a law that mandates all the diamond producers to give 10% of their runoff mind of diamonds. And those, we then supply them to our clients. We have about 92 clients that do cutting and polishing. They can even go further in jewellery manufacturing here thanks to this new park that makes chain supply processes much smoother.”
Nosiphiwo Mzamo, CEO, State Diamond trader – South Africa
Despite this progress, high input costs and irregular electricity supplies continue to have a significant impact on the sector’s performance, a situation for which the authorities are planning in the coming days to create a legislative framework to promote green energy.
