20-05-2025
Loaded for Bear: A junior miner is listing on the JSE, an event that is as rare as it is revealing
South Africa's share of global exploration expenditure has fallen down a deep shaft to less than 1.0% from about 5.0% two decades ago. Climbing out of this hole will be a huge task, but it needs to be done if South Africa wants to have a vibrant mining sector down the road.
On Wednesday 21 May 2025, Shuka Minerals Plc, a junior mining exploration company, will launch a secondary listing on the JSE's AltX board.
Already listed on the London Stock Exchange's AIM, Shuka — a R50-million company — is not going to add material weight to the JSE's market cap.
But the listing is both rare and revealing and therefore of more than passing interest as it coincides this week with the unveiling of South Africa's Critical Minerals Strategy and Mineral Resources Development Bill 2025.
The listing is rare because almost five months into the year, Shuka is the first company listing on the JSE in 2025, according to consultancy AmaranthCX, which has a database going back to 1994. And there have already been seven announced delistings in 2025, with two more in the pipeline.
AmaranthCX director Paul Miller told me that this was a reflection of a worrying trend on the bourse, which only had three new company listings for all of 2023. Last year, there were 12 company delistings and 11 listings — so the JSE ended 2024 with one less company listing and is on track this year for an even worse showing.
This speaks to the wider woes of the JSE and the state of South Africa's capital markets.
'These ongoing net delistings, but more importantly the absence of primary capital raising on the market, speak to the inability of the market operators to persuade their regulators and the policymakers that this is a crisis. It desperately needs a policy intervention, but all it seems to get from the National Treasury is indifference,' Miller told me.
Rarity
Shuka's JSE debut is also a rarity because there are so few junior mining/exploration companies listed on the bourse — a frankly shocking state of affairs given South Africa's fabulous resource endowment.
The Toronto Stock Exchange and the Australian Stock Exchange both have hundreds of junior miners listed. Both countries, of course, are major players on the global mining stage.
South Africa should also have hundreds but alas, an arid junior listings desert surrounds a glittering oasis of mineral wealth. The JSE has a grand total of five junior miners, and Shuka will make it six.
'Junior mining and exploration is one side of a coin, and the other is capital market development. If you are not thinking hard about capital market development then you will not have junior mining,' Miller told me.
This is also rooted in the many own goals scored over the years by the industry's regulator, the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources (DMPR, formerly the DMRE).
Exploration is the foundation of any mining sector. It can take years or decades to build a new mine from scratch, and the resource will remain untapped if it is not discovered and uncovered by exploration, a risky business mostly carried out by junior miners.
But mineral exploration in South Africa has long had too many hurdles to clear to get off the ground effectively.
I have banged on for years about the needless delays in processing applications for mining and prospecting rights and the deplorable lack of a transparent mining cadastre, an online portal which should speed things up in a transparent way.
There is finally light at the end of this long tunnel and Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe has promised that a proper mining cadastre will be up and running by the second half of this year.
That should help South Africa eventually reclaim its rightful place as a focus for mining exploration and the capital this sector can attract.
Mantashe on Tuesday unveiled South Africa's Critical Minerals and Metals Strategy as well as the Mineral Resources Development Bill 2025, which were recently approved by the Cabinet.
'The approval of these two policy documents marks a major milestone in our concerted efforts that are aimed at ensuring policy and regulatory certainty, as well as maximising the country's potential in the global market for minerals,' Mantashe said in a statement.
Policy certainty may be the laudable aim here, but this constant shifting of the goalposts can have the opposite effect.
Still, some shifting can be helpful.
'The bill proposes streamlining administrative processes to ensure proper alignment with National Environmental Management Act (Nema) and the National Water Act (NWA), and thereby reduce bureaucratic inefficiencies and improve turnaround times for mining rights, permits, and regulatory approvals,' Mantashe said.
Safeguards
That will be welcome provided the measures do not dilute safeguards to such an extent that critical ecosystems and waterways are threatened.
Mantashe also said that the Critical Minerals Strategy — which casts a very wide net and basically includes almost every mineral of importance — '… emphasises that South Africa must prioritise exploration to sustain its mining sector and for the success of this strategy'.
South Africa's share of global exploration expenditure has fallen down a deep shaft to less than 1.0% from about 5.0% two decades ago. Climbing out of this hole will be a huge task but it needs to be done if South Africa wants to have a vibrant mining sector down the road.
It remains to be seen if the new strategy and bill — the latter which is now open for public comments — will help or hinder this journey.
Next week the Junior Indaba will take place in Johannesburg where such issues will be explored.
So a hat tip to Shuka and good luck. New company listings on the JSE and junior miners on the bourse are both critically endangered species. But they are not extinct yet. DM
