South Africa can become a strong value-add minerals player again, PyroFuZA insists

This audio is brought to you by Endress and Hauser, a global leader in process and laboratory measurement technology, offering a broad portfolio of instruments, solutions and services for industrial process measurement and automation. Look out for PyroFuZA. Those eight letters have the potential to make best use of South Africa's natural resources and restore South Africa's value-adding power, which, in turn, can help to foot the bill for the innovative rebuilding of this country's economy. PyroFuZA spells out that it's possible for South Africa to put its own distinctive correct measures in place that will enable this country to, once again, become a strong player within the value-add ecosystem, amid different measures being applied at different stages of advancement so that long-term momentum is assured. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) Pointed out is that, even now, South Africa is not totally bereft of momentum, and will not have to restart from scratch, but needs to a stand-together approach, a same-direction aim, and a new-foundation-laying agenda. While PyroFuZA acknowledges that "the needle has to be threaded very carefully", the eight letters also come with the conviction that both internal and external win-win synergies can be turned to positive account if conscientiously sought. Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly spoke to Dr Johan Zietsman and mining luminary Bernard Swanepoel following the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy's Pyrometallurgy International Conference 2026, which shone a bright spotlight on the future of the South Africa's pyrometallurgical industry, which spans the worlds of iron and steel, ferroalloys, platinum group metals and base metals. Mining Weekly: The conference opened with something quite unusual — a full-day workshop called PyroFuZA, bringing together CEOs, government officials, and senior industry figures behind closed doors. What was the purpose of that day, and why was it necessary? Zietsman: Thanks for the opportunity to chat about this, which I think is essential to our country and our economy, We are blessed with minerals of great value in the ground, and it has been the platform for building our economy for the previous 100 years. But in the last 30 or so years, that has all been in decline, and there are geopolitical issues at play. There are local issues at play. It's by no means a simple matter, but it's a fact that this industry and the value addition of these minerals that we have can pay the bills for rebuilding our economy again to be leading in Africa and in some respects leading in the world. I think we owe it to the future generations to do this and not just accept the direction in which our industry is going, and that's why we invited industry leaders, government participation. In my view, one company cannot solve this on their own. As other countries operate in national unity in some respects, we need to do something similar in South Africa. This industry specifically is fragmented. There is no unified effort to build the common infrastructure that we need, and that's a great opportunity. The decline that we are seeing does not need to continue. It's a choice, and rebuilding the industry is also a choice, but it's a choice that we have to make together. South Africa has lost more than two-million tonnes of smelting capacity since 2014. At least 30 of 59 chrome furnaces are on care-and-maintenance or closed. Last year South Africa exported 24-million tonnes of chrome ore while producing less than one-million tonnes of ferrochrome, against nearly five-million tonnes of installed capacity. How did this happen? It's a structural decline. If we consider the major ferrochrome producers in the world, it's South Africa, Kazakhstan, and China. Our energy cost is basically double that of our competitors, and we have not sustainably renewed our energy generation capacity, which means that we have come to a point where it's basically impos...