Techmet’s Trump link could benefit South Africa

TECHMET’S growth in critical minerals production, processing and marketing is likely to get “bigger and quicker” with the backing of the Trump administration, says TechMet founder and CEO Brian Menell.That’s a positive for South Africa because Menell, the grandson of Anglovaal co-founder Slip Menell, is less likely than most international investors to exclude the country’s mining sector from the list of potential TechMet destinations.TechMet is an investment company valued at over $1bn that sources developing or producing assets in critical minerals (lithium, nickel, cobalt, vanadium, tin, rare earths and tungsten) and takes either controlling or dominant minority stakes. Its significant investors include the US International Development Finance Corporation and the Qatar Investment Authority, both of which are keen to diversify critical minerals sourcing away from China.China currently controls around two-thirds of the production or processing of critical minerals such as lithium, graphite, cobalt and nickel, and over 90% of that of rare earth elements (REEs), according to an RBC blog in April 2025, ‘The New Great Game: how the race for critical minerals is shaping tech supremacy’. If China were to cut off or hike the prices of these minerals to its buyers, it would wreak havoc with the global aerospace, defence, transport, energy and communications sectors.President Donald Trump has made critical minerals sourcing an important element of his policies since his first period in office, primarily to accelerate domestic mining and processing. In his first term, Trump signed an executive order defining 35 minerals as essential to national interests. The Biden administration followed with funding support for domestic critical minerals projects.In January 2025, Trump signed an executive order declaring that critical minerals shortages threatened US national security, and he established the National Energy Dominance Council to streamline permitting and coordinate and accelerate domestic production. However, as the US is not well-endowed with all the critical minerals it needs, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has emphasised the need to sign international deals.“Everything we do is with the mission to build secure, well-governed and competitively priced supply chains for US industry and its allies,” Menell told the London Indaba in June. “We have chosen to be China-free, so we have no Chinese investment or counterparties.“We seek projects that have potential to be low cost and compete with China. This is difficult, as China has become almost unassailable in economies of scale, incumbency and processing technology due to low costs and government subsidies. They are very formidable competitors. We have to focus on innovation, and do things differently, to compete.”AfricaMenell said TechMet was supported by, and working with, a number of US funding agencies, and anticipated getting more funding from them for specific projects. “We are not planning to expand our list of seven target metals but will continue to look for opportunities in those sectors.”He told the London Indaba that TechMet was underweight in Africa, and was willing to invest further in the continent, especially in nickel, where the medium-term outlook was compelling. “We will invest in low or medium-risk countries where we are comfortable we can assess risks and have relationships,” he told the conference. “We seek governments that recognise that the 20-year supply disruption is an opportunity they have to earn by incentivising investment.“Rwanda has been engaging and enabling although South Africa, where we are preparing to build a project, has quite a lot of historical baggage.”At the Indaba, the South African government launched its own critical minerals strategy which contains, among other aspects, proposals to increase investments in exploration, domestic beneficiation, R&D and skills development. It proposes fiscal incentives, differentiated electricity tariffs and loan guarantees to support domestic processing, and a “one-stop shop” to facilitate licensing and permitting across the relevant government departments.While the as-yet undefined fiscal incentives, differentiated electricity tariffs and loan guarantees are relatively fresh ideas, many of the others, such as the “one-stop shop”, have been on the cards since Minerals and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe took office in 2018.“The critical minerals strategy contains some good ideas that, if executed, would help us and other companies to increase the viability of our projects and make further investments,” Menell says. “Certainly, any resource-rich country that wants to attract investment needs to offer fiscal and regulatory certainty, and an enabling environment with cheap power and affordable labour.”The post Techmet’s Trump link could benefit South Africa appeared first on Miningmx.Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com