South Africa Metal Reserves
USGS reports 10 commodities with a reserve or production figure for South Africa, led by Manganese at 30.56% of the reported global reserve. See South Africa's price profile for live metal prices.
USGS assesses roughly 90 mineral commodities worldwide each year, but only compiles a country-level reserve or production breakdown for a given commodity where the underlying data supports one — the table below is every commodity that condition is met for in South Africa. Each row pairs the reserve quantity with its share of the reported global total and last year's production, so it's possible to see at a glance which commodities this country is significant in and which it merely reports a smaller figure for.
Global Reserve Share by Commodity
South Africa's Reported Commodities
| Commodity | Category | Reserve | Global Reserve Share | 2025 Production | Global Production Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chromium | Strategic | 110,000 thousand metric tons, Cr2O3 content | Not calculated | 23,000 thousand metric tons, gross weight | 45.10% |
| Gold | Precious | 5,000 metric tons (gold content) | 7.58% | 90 metric tons (gold content) | 2.73% |
| Iron Ore | Base | 680 million metric tons, iron content | 0.78% | 66,000 thousand metric tons, usable ore | 2.54% |
| Manganese | Battery | 550,000 thousand metric tons (gross weight) | 30.56% | 7,600 thousand metric tons (gross weight) | 38.00% |
| Palladium | Precious | 3,000,000 kg PGM content | Not calculated | 70,000 kg palladium | 36.84% |
| Platinum | Precious | 3,000,000 kg PGM content | Not calculated | 120,000 kg platinum | 70.59% |
| Rare Earths | Rare-earth | 860,000 metric tons (rare-earth-oxide (REO) equi | Not calculated | Not reported | Not calculated |
| Titanium Mineral Concentrates | Strategic | 28,000 thousand metric tons, TiO2 content | Not calculated | 1,300 thousand metric tons, TiO2 content | 13.83% |
| Vanadium | Battery | 520 metric tons (vanadium content) | 2.48% | 5,000 metric tons (vanadium content) | 4.55% |
| Zirconium and Hafnium | Strategic | 5,900 thousand metric tons, ZrO2 content | Not calculated | 270 thousand metric tons, gross weight | 22.50% |
