South Africa Proposes Chrome Export Tax to Revive Local Ferrochrome Industry and Link Mining Rights to Beneficiation

The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition issued an industrial development strategy in the week of 9 June 2026 that lists an export tax and quota for the chrome industry among its policy targets. The same document calls for changes to mining legislation so that beneficiation conditions can be attached to the allocation of mineral rights.

The South African mining sector reacted with alarm to the proposals.

The document states that a review of mining legislation on the allocation of mineral rights is critical to enable the government to attach conditions that must facilitate beneficiation. It adds that embedding beneficiation objectives in mining licensing decisions will allow the government to require mining rights applicants to show how they plan to transform minerals into higher-value end products in South Africa.

Beneficiation refers to the processing of raw minerals and metals into finished industrial products.

A tax on chrome exports is presented in the strategy as one way of supporting a domestic ferrochrome industry that has collapsed in the face of surging power prices and Chinese dominance. The article reporting the proposals was published on 9 June 2026 by Daily Maverick in Johannesburg.