JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – President Jacob Zuma’s Cabinet has finally approved South Africa’s long-incubated ten-commodity beneficiation strategy, which sets out to leverage long-term benefits from the country’s substantial mineral endowment.

The Cabinet says in a media release that the beneficiation strategy provides a framework capable of translating the country's minerals into competitive industrial advantage.

The beneficiation strategy, developed under the leadership of Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu, centres on ten commodities and five value chains.

The ten selected commodities are gold, platinum, diamonds, iron-ore, chromium, manganese, vanadium, nickel and titanium, with coal and uranium bracketed together, and the five value chains are energy, steel and stainless steel, pigment production, autocatalyst and diesel particulate filters, diamond processing and jewellery.

Sidestream beneficiation is recognised, but downstream value addition is emphasised, embracing a rangeof activities from capital-intensive smelting and refining to labour-intensive craft jewellery and metal fabrication.

The Cabinet’s approval follows South Africa’s historic 2010 joint government, labour and business declaration, which recognised beneficiation as a means of translating South Africa’s comparative mineral advantage into a competitive advantage to fuel further industrialisation.

The tripartite declaration of 2010 included a joint commitment to add value in South Africa rather than export raw ore.

The 13-commitment joint declaration’s fifth commitment is to consider the establishment of a national beneficiation agency that is mandated to drive downstream, upstream and sidestream beneficiation as well as all mining-linked industries; and to enlist the support of strategic international partners to develop skills and to transfer technology.

The Cabinet says that the new policy presents exciting opportunities for long-term investment, for both local and foreign investors.

"Beneficiation will leverage optimal benefit from enhanced value of exports, increasing sources for consumption of local content and contribute towards the creation of sustainable jobs,” it adds.