The Department of Mineral Resources would approach the Treasury about imposing a levy on all raw mineral exports from South Africa in order to encourage domestic beneficiation, the department’s director-general, Thibedi Ramontja, said on Wednesday.

Answering questions before Parliament’s portfolio committee on mineral resources, Mr Ramontja said at present the only levy imposed was on diamonds. According to the South African Revenue Service the export levy is 5 percent on the total value of the diamonds exported.

Mr Ramontja said the matter had become urgent. "Sooner or later our mineral resources will run out and we can’t have people saying that we never developed the vision to beneficiate our own minerals ."

Energy department officials told the committee that the Cabinet had developed and approved two value chain specific implementation plans. The first was for an energy commodities value chain that included coal and possibly gas in the future, and the second was for iron and steel.

The final implementation plan under development would have all value chains as chapters. The plan was intended to provide a comprehensive set of interventions that would create an enabling environment.

Energy department officials said in their presentation the plan was an elaboration of the beneficiation policy adopted in June last year. The emphasis would be on synergies and integration of existing beneficiation interventions in order to maximise the development effect.

Further, the plan would introduce measures to enhance local and domestic markets, and take advantage of on Wednesday’s membership of several economic trade blocs, including the Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa informal trade grouping.

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