A look at South Africa’s crucial and most divisive natural resource

A look at South Africa’s crucial and most divisive natural resource

The 2025 WhyAfrica Road Trip will go coast to coast in southern Africa.

By Leon Louw founder of WhyAfrica and editor of the WhyAfrica magazine.

Interesting to note, and unbeknown to many, is that there are Heavy Mineral Sands (HMS) mines on the west and east coast of South Africa.

Often controversial, HMS is the source of minerals deemed critical in many countries around the world today. It yields several essential minerals:  ilmenite and rutile (aerospace industry), zircon (nuclear fuel cladding) and often rare earth elements (electric vehicles and wind turbines) and garnet (water filtration).

Mining on the west coast

The west coast of South Africa yields significant amounts of garnet, zircon and ilmenite.

Garnet is used (amongst others) in environmental industries and especially in water management products. Because it is dense and chemically stable, garnet is ideal in water filtration systems.

The quality of garnet mined at Kazera Global’s Whale Head Minerals (WHM) operation close to Alexander Bay on the west coast of South Africa, has attracted attention from global traders, although it still contains significant amounts of silica.

Earlier this month Kazera announced that a company focused on garnet offtake specifically expressed strong interest in WHM’s garnet production.

Spirals to remove silica

According to Dennis Edmonds, CEO of Kazera, discussions are underway regarding a potential partnership under which the garnet company will supply an additional set of spirals at their own cost to facilitate targeted garnet extraction and the removal of further silica.

“This would reduce their transport costs while improving the overall quality of WHM’s end-product,” says Edmonds.

Earlier this year WHM delivered its first 100,000 dry tonnes of HMS to Fujax South Africa, a subsidiary of Cape Town based minerals trading company Fujax Group.

According to Edmonds WHM has already installed 12 double-stage spirals at the operation that is used to improve separation efficiency and concentrate quality. The spirals represent a key upgrade to the processing plant.

“The spirals are currently being fine-tuned to optimise performance. The system has been designed with a removable feed bin, offering flexibility to add additional spirals, sand cyclones, or sluice decks as production requirements evolve,” says Edmonds.

Image: WHM recently installed new spirals. Image credit: Kazera Global

HMS in focus during the 2025 WhyAfrica Road trip

WhyAfrica will visit key HMS operations during the 2025 WhyAfrica Road Trip to find out more about the strategic importance of these projects.

Remember if you become a WhyAfrica member you get daily updates and live coverage of the 2025 WhyAfrica Road Trip on our WhyAfrica Road Trip WhatsApp channel.

All you have to do is visit the WhyAfrica website and click on the membership link or contact me directly, Linkedin followers have an open line.