Minerals Council: mining added R477bn to South Africa's GDP in 2025

At its 136th Annual General Meeting in Johannesburg on 27 May 2026, the Minerals Council South Africa released its Integrated Annual Review and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December 2025, showing the mining sector contributed R477bn to gross domestic product, equivalent to 6.2% of GDP. The sector employed 470,457 people during the year, paid R200bn in wages and contributed R124bn in taxes to the fiscus.

The figures marked one of the strongest annual showings for South African mining in years, reflecting the sharp rise in gold, platinum, palladium and rhodium prices that ran through 2025 and into 2026, even as physical production in several commodities remained under pressure from logistics constraints and ageing infrastructure.

Growth built on price, not always on tonnes

The AGM's numbers echoed a pattern already visible in Stats SA's monthly releases: mining's rand contribution to the economy had grown substantially faster than the volumes being extracted, driven overwhelmingly by the commodity price boom in PGMs and gold. Speakers at the AGM used the platform to press for policy certainty around revised mining legislation, more reliable rail and port infrastructure through Transnet, and continued momentum on safety, arguing that the sector's near-record contribution in 2025 could not be taken for granted if underlying operating conditions did not improve.

Looking to 2026

Minerals Council leadership set out priorities for the year ahead including embedding predictive safety systems, restoring infrastructure reliability and accelerating modernisation across the sector. With mineral sales data through the first half of 2026 already running well ahead of the prior year, largely on the back of the same price effects, the Council's 2027 AGM will show whether that momentum could be sustained once the extraordinary PGM and gold price gains of 2025-26 inevitably moderate.

Industry economists cautioned that the 2025 figures, strong as they were, had been flattered by the same PGM and gold price surge already visible in Stats SA's monthly data, and urged government and investors to judge the sector's health over a longer horizon than a single exceptional year.

Government officials welcomed the figures as evidence that mining remained central to South Africa's economic recovery, while opposition politicians used the same data to argue that the sector's tax contribution should rise further given the scale of the windfall producers were then enjoying.

Sources

• Miningweekly: Mining can unlock growth, skills, job creation, Minerals Council AGM hears, 27 May 2026
• IOL Business Report: Captains of mining industry warn policy certainty key to sector's growth in South Africa, 27 May 2026

Photo: The Sandton skyline in Johannesburg, home to the Minerals Council South Africa and many mining company head offices. Andres de Wet, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.