The Northern Cape is emerging as a key contender in South Africa’s push for economic growth, with significant untapped potential in its mining sector.
Source: Supplied. Acting chief economist in the Minerals Council South Africa, Bongani Motsa addressed a stakeholders’ collaboration session in Sandton ahead of the upcoming Northern Cape Investment and Jobs Conference 2026, which will be hosted in Kimberley.
Speaking ahead of the Northern Cape Investment and Jobs Conference 2026, Minerals Council South Africa acting chief economist, Bongani Motsa highlighted the province’s rich reserves of manganese and rare earth minerals.
These resources, he noted, could play a pivotal role in driving industrial expansion, attracting investment, and positioning the region as a future mining powerhouse.
Motsa said: “It is our view that the Northern Cape can be South Africa’s next mining hub, and could also be the next beneficiation centre for manganese and iron ore. But there must be a deliberate strategy to extract value, and planning must start now.”
He also called for more investment in beneficiation, with a focus on minerals beneficiation that addressed South Africa’s own needs.
Northern Cape rising
Mining is a key focus of the Northern Cape government’s development plan. Northern Cape Premier Zamani Saul told the collaboration session that mining is one of six critical pillars of the province’s industrialisation and development strategy, along with infrastructure development and transport corridors to support an expanded mining sector.
Describing the Northern Cape as one of South Africa’s most under-explored and underutilised yet highest potential regions, the Premier invited business and investors to reimagine the Northern Cape not as a province on the periphery of the economy, but as a future-facing globally competitive industrial hub.
He said: “Across the world, industrial advantage is shifting towards regions that offer four things: abundant green energy; proximity to natural resources; a trained skills base; and access to markets through reliable infrastructure. This shift is drawing value chains back towards resource locations and the Northern Cape is firmly on this trajectory.
Unmatched mineral potential
"The Northern Cape offers a scale of opportunities that few in the world can match. It is a large and under-used industrial landscape with room for energy, mining, agriculture, manufacturing , logistics and tourism.”
He noted that global demand for critical minerals such as manganese, copper, zinc and other strategic minerals is rising sharply.
“The Northern Cape holds globally significant deposits of these minerals and is well positioned to become a dependable, long-term supplier to global manufacturing value chains. We are now moving up the value chain to a new greener smelting capacity for zinc, manganese, iron ore, copper and lime, and key investors are already deeply invested in the Northern Cape,” he said.
Government, business, investors and stakeholders will meet in Kimberley next month to discuss opportunities and partnerships to stimulate the Northern Cape’s industrial development plans.
The Northern Cape Investment and Jobs Conference will be held from Monday, 13 April to Wednesday, 15 April 2026 at the Mittah Seperepere International Convention Centre (MSICC) in Kimberley.
