Investing in minerals research is important: Mantashe

Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe has emphasized the need to invest in research, to discover the values in various minerals in the country.

Mantashe says coal is one of the minerals with scarce elements that are key for energy production which can only be discovered through research.

Mantashe said this during his site visit at the launch of the carbon capture and storage program in Leandra in the Govan Mbeki Municipality in Mpumalanga.

This over four-hundred-million rand project was developed by the Council for Geoscience to offer solutions on harmful carbon emissions such as the burning of coal.

“Investing in research is important to discover further use and other values that are in various minerals. Coal is one of them. And miners must talk about those critical minerals. Don’t wait for somebody else. Talk about them, be part of defining them. They cannot be defined in terms of Australian needs or American needs or Canadian needs. But we must define them according to our own needs,” says Mantashe.

[𝑪𝑨𝑹𝑩𝑶𝑵 𝑪𝑨𝑷𝑻𝑼𝑹𝑬 𝑼𝑻𝑰𝑳𝑰𝑺𝑨𝑻𝑰𝑶𝑵 𝑨𝑵𝑫 𝑺𝑻𝑶𝑹𝑨𝑮𝑬 𝑷𝑹𝑶𝑱𝑬𝑪𝑻]#ExploreCCUS#CCUS
Minister @GwedeMantashe1‘s remarks… pic.twitter.com/Jvt9hRS3dN

— Department of Mineral Resources and Energy ‏ (@DMRE_ZA) August 30, 2024