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List of South African mines
South Africa runs some of the best known mines on the planet, and this is a plain guide to them commodity by commodity, from the gold shafts at Mponeng to the vast iron pits at Sishen. We name the operations that anyone in the trade would recognise and group them by what comes out of the ground. The full mine-by-mine directory, with the verified people who run each one, sits behind a subscription. Knowing the mine is step one. Reaching the people who run it is where the work begins.
Notable South African mines, commodity by commodity
South Africa's mines, commodity by commodity
The easiest way to read South Africa's mining map is by commodity. Each group below names the operations most people in the trade already know, and links through to a fuller picture of that commodity and the projects live within it.
Mponeng, the deepest mine on earth, sits alongside Driefontein, Kloof, South Deep, Beatrix, Tshepong, Moab Khotsong and Kopanang. These are the Witwatersrand and Free State names that built the country's gold story.
Explore gold → PtMogalakwena, the world's largest open-pit platinum-group-metal mine, leads a list that runs through Rustenburg, Marikana, Impala and Two Rivers. Almost all of it sits on the Bushveld Complex north and west of Pretoria.
Explore platinum → CGrootegeluk in the Waterberg, plus Mafube, New Largo and New Vaal across the Mpumalanga Highveld, feed the power stations and export terminals. Coal is the commodity that keeps the lights on and the bulk supply chains busy.
Explore coal →Venetia in Limpopo is the country's largest diamond mine, joined by Finsch, the historic Cullinan pipe that yielded the world's biggest rough diamond, and Koffiefontein. These kimberlite operations work the deep volcanic pipes.
Explore diamond → Fe·MnSishen and Kolomela ship iron ore out of the Northern Cape, while Hotazel, Black Rock and Mamatwan anchor the Kalahari manganese field, the largest manganese deposit on earth. Both feed long heavy-haul rail lines to port.
Explore iron ore → CrSouth Africa holds the bulk of the world's chrome reserves, mined from the same Bushveld Complex that carries the platinum reefs. A spread of operations along the eastern and western limbs feeds the country's ferrochrome smelters.
Explore chrome →Put South Africa's mines to work for your business
Reciting the headline names is the easy half. Subscribe to AMIQ and the full mine-by-mine directory opens up, each operation carrying its named owner, engineer and EPC, which lets you speak to the people deciding the work while the shortlist is still being drawn.
South Africa's mines by commodity
A rough sense of how the mines split across the major commodities, weighted by their share of active operations and output. Coal and the platinum-group metals lead by sheer scale, with gold, diamonds, iron, manganese and chrome filling out the rest of the picture.
What AMIQ adds to the list
A list of famous mines tells you where to look. It does not tell you what is happening at each one today, or who to call. That is the gap AMIQ fills, turning a reference list into a working tool for the mining companies and service providers chasing real work.
Live status on every mine. See at a glance whether an operation is producing, expanding, on care and maintenance or winding down, so you spend your time on the mines that are actually buying.
Verified contacts, not switchboards. Reach the named owner, project engineer and EPC behind each mine, every detail checked and refreshed by our research team rather than scraped from an old web page.
Alerts when something moves. A note by email or SMS reaches you the moment a fresh operation joins the record or a known one shifts into a new stage, so a shutdown, an expansion or an opening tender never quietly passes you by.
Filter beyond the famous names. The headline mines are only the start. Search the full directory by commodity, province, phase and capital value to surface the smaller operations a public list never mentions.
Capital values per project. Each entry carries the scope and estimated spend, so you can size the opportunity and decide where to put your bid effort before you ever pick up the phone.
Coverage across the country. Every commodity and every province in one platform, part of more than 560 South African projects and over 2,200 tracked across the continent.
A country that mines almost everything
South Africa has mined almost every metal worth mining. Gold built the country, and its deepest mines, led by Mponeng more than four kilometres below surface, still set the standard for hard-rock engineering anywhere on earth. The historic Witwatersrand names, from Driefontein and Kloof to South Deep and Beatrix, remain the operations most people picture when they think of a South African mine.
Move north and the picture shifts to the Bushveld Complex, the geological seam that holds most of the world's platinum-group metals and chrome. Mogalakwena, the largest open-pit PGM mine on the planet, sits here alongside Rustenburg, Marikana, Impala and Two Rivers, with a spread of chrome operations worked off the same reefs. The Highveld and the Waterberg carry the coal that powers the country, through Grootegeluk, Mafube, New Largo and New Vaal feeding the power stations and export lines.
The Northern Cape rounds out the list, where iron ore moves from Sishen and Kolomela, the Kalahari manganese field runs through Hotazel, Black Rock and Mamatwan, and the diamond pipes at Venetia, Finsch, Cullinan and Koffiefontein keep their own corner of the trade alive. The full mine-by-mine directory, with the verified contacts behind each operation, is on AMIQ with a subscription.
The provinces with the most mines
South Africa's mines are not spread evenly. They gather where the geology runs richest, and four provinces between them hold the bulk of the famous names on this list.
Gauteng
The heart of the Witwatersrand gold belt that built Johannesburg, with deep-level operations and the densest base of mining-services companies in the country.
Explore →North West
Home to the Rustenburg and Marikana platinum belt, where Impala and the Bushveld reefs put the province at the centre of the world's platinum-group-metal supply.
Explore →Mpumalanga
The Highveld coalfields that feed most of the country's power stations, with mines such as Mafube and New Largo supplying the bulk-haul logistics chain.
Explore →Northern Cape
Iron ore at Sishen and Kolomela, the Kalahari manganese field at Hotazel and Black Rock, and historic diamond ground all sit across this vast, sparsely worked province.
Explore →Explore South Africa's mines
Follow any commodity through to its own guide, or move on to the directory, the companies and the projects behind the list.
South Africa's mines: the questions people ask
How many mines are there in South Africa?
Several hundred mines are at work across the country, covering gold, platinum, coal, diamonds, iron, manganese, chrome and a long tail of smaller minerals. The well-known names gathered here are only the headline operations. In total, the Africa Mining IQ platform holds upward of 560 South African projects, live and planned, each broken out by commodity, by province and by the stage it has reached.
What is the deepest mine in South Africa?
Mponeng, west of Johannesburg, is the deepest mine in South Africa and the deepest mine in the world, working gold ore more than four kilometres below surface. Mining at that depth drives constant demand for specialised hoisting, ventilation, cooling and engineering services from suppliers.
What are the biggest mines in South Africa?
Measured by sheer scale, the leaders include Mogalakwena, the planet's biggest open-cut platinum-group-metal mine, along with Sishen's sprawling Northern Cape iron ore pit, Grootegeluk in the Waterberg coalfield, and Venetia, the country's largest diamond producer. On the gold side, South Deep and Driefontein stay among the heavyweight underground operations.
Where can I find a list of South African mines?
What you are reading is a hand-picked guide to the country's notable mines, sorted by what each one produces. The complete, searchable record, naming the owner, engineer and EPC attached to every operation, lives inside the Africa Mining IQ platform, which subscribers open in full.
What minerals are mined in South Africa?
Few metals worth digging for are absent here. The headline outputs run to gold, platinum-group metals, coal, diamonds, iron ore, manganese and chrome, with copper, vanadium and a handful of lesser minerals filling in around them. Between the Bushveld Complex and the Witwatersrand Basin, the country sits on a strikingly large slice of global reserves.
How can suppliers find work at South African mines?
The trick is to make contact before a scope hardens, and Africa Mining IQ is built for exactly that. Every entry sets out the work involved, the phase, the place and the capital behind it, names the mine-owner, project-engineer and EPC to approach, and pings you by email or SMS the moment a fresh operation lands or an existing one moves on.
