Indian mining firms eye opportunities as South Africa eases regulations

The South African government's move to ease mining regulations and privatisation of infrastructure opens up opportunities for Indian business, according to Nitin Agrawal, Group Chairman of Oza Holdings, which has assets in the mining and manufacturing sectors.

Agrawal was addressing a gathering of 36 business leaders from the NPO Young Indians, which is part of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

The delegation was in South Africa in the past week as part of the G20 Young Entrepreneurs Alliance. South Africa holds the Presidency of the G20 this year.

Indian Consul General in Johannesburg Mahesh Kumar hosted the group for interactions with local business leaders, government representatives and business school leaders.

"South Africa is a large and developed economy within Africa. It has very well-established mineral reserves and resources, along with very well-developed infrastructure, be it road, rail, or ports that can handle large volumes of commodities. It has a very good way of conducting mining operations with very good regulatory frameworks," Agrawal said as he shared how businesses from India can benefit and grow from the opportunities that exist in South Africa.

"Anyone can obtain a licence to prospect and search for minerals or to mine these minerals, which is a unique proposition when compared to other economies," he said, even though he flagged challenges in infrastructure in South Africa.

Agrawal said the South African government has embarked on a major impetus to address this deterioration in infrastructure, which has been hampering progress in the mining sector.

"We have seen a significant improvement in South Africa within rail and port operations in 2025. We see 2026 to be a very improved environment for port and rail capacity, which will provide additional leverage to mining companies and improve their overall competitiveness in the global market," he said.

Agarwal said the recent privatisation programme by the South African government has boosted confidence in the mining sector, in turn presenting more opportunities for Indian business.

"We believe a large portion of the rail services and rail capital equipment will be sourced from India. Indian companies have railway manufacturing facilities and some of these will be leveraged by South African businesses as this privatisation programme is rolled out.

"Along with this, the government has launched an impetus for local beneficiation of minerals, which have historically been exported in raw form. With this impetus of local beneficiation several commodities have opportunities in respect of value-added products being produced, Agrawal said.

He said in ferro alloy production, larger bloated business is exiting the country, while Indian businesses traditionally have been nimble and are able to operate in challenging environments.

"This provides Indian businesses a unique ability to survive when the times are tough in challenging environments and flourish when the going is good. We believe that has led Indian businesses to do very well over the years in South Africa as well," he said, citing the examples of pharma, IT, mining, and the secondary steel industry in South Africa, the latter, he said, is dominated by Indian players.

Agrawal said that although South Africa has challenges such as power shortages and limited water resources, Indian businesses have skills which could address this.

"Indian businesses have skills while South Africa is a skills-short nation. It has a large young workforce and skills transfer from India will enable South African businesses to have a good partnership.

"We believe that the India-South Africa partnership in respect of mining and infrastructure investment will grow with capital machinery coming from India. Over the last few years, we have observed that automobiles and mining machinery was traditionally as Eurocentric business, whereas now the industry has focused on the East, with India and China dominating these markets.

"We recently witnessed a diamond cutting and polishing business set up in an IDZ (industrial development zone), which is completely along what the government of South Africa wants investment into beneficiation, local skills transfer, and local employment along with benefiting Indian businesses to set up manufacturing units here," he said.

"There is a major gap with mineral beneficiation capital equipment. We believe this gap will be plugged by some Indian manufacturers. Even in mining machinery, there is a significant gap which over the years Indian manufacturers will start filling by supplying mining equipment.

"So overall it's not just mineral, not just investment in infrastructure, but the ancillary items will see growth and we believe that Indian businesses will have a major role to play in this growth," Agrawal said.

Consul General Kumar also invited Indian business to share any solutions that would work for both South Africa and the southern African region as India explores new opportunities.