The Northern Cape could be sitting pretty on a potential critical mineral powerhouse as untapped copper reserves garner growing attention from international investors.
On Monday, BHP, the world’s largest listed miner, announced it would form a joint venture with Orion Minerals to advance the group’s copper and zinc exploration programme in the province — part of a larger partnership with early-stage explorers around the world.
Orion, which is already developing two copper and zinc assets in the Northern Cape, will enjoy a $500,000 cash injection to fund further exploration, opening the door to more investment in the region. It is the first South African operation to be included in BHP’s cohort.
BHP chief exploration officer Tim O’Connor said the project is still in “very early days”, but Orion’s leadership and approach to exploring new reserves in a well-established mining area had caught the group’s eye.
“There’s been a significant deficit in large discoveries, particularly over the past 15 years,” O’Connor told Business Day.
“The industry is not finding sufficient resource of grade and quality to underpin the longer-term demand that many of us see.”
Demand for copper is expected to increase by 40% by 2040, spurred by industrialisation and growing demand from data centres and electric vehicles, while the fear that US President Donald Trump will impose tariffs on the metal is also weighing on prices.
Surging demand for the metal means mega miners are scrambling to secure their supplies, with few new mine discoveries.
“This is really an opportunity to take a step back and think about the big picture — what potential concepts might we be missing here?
“At the end of it, if the project continues to hold up and has the scale that is relevant to a company like ours, we will progress it with a more traditional exploration earn-in. Those tend to be worth around $10m-$20m, and we would fund the work programme directly thereafter.
“To be clear, we don’t know if that would work here. But [Orion] is taking a well-known area but looking at it through a new lens with new ideas, which is exciting to us.”
BHP’s investment comes as the group tries to bolster its exposure to copper, a mission that resulted in the mining giant launching three hostile attempts to take over Anglo American in 2024 and 2025.
It also marks a rare investment in South Africa for the Australian company. Part of the reason that BHP’s Anglo bids fell flat was the group’s strained relationship with the country, which resulted in it pledging to invest in South Africa’s economy as part of its buyout offer in mid-2024.
In May 2024, BHP made a series of commitments to invest in South Africa and support charitable projects as part of its takeover of Anglo, while arguing that the resultant spin-off of Valterra Platinum and Kumba Iron Ore would benefit the local economy.
The behemoth’s joint venture with Orion comes as the latter has reported widening losses in recent years while pouring cash into its costly Prieska Copper Zinc Mine (PCZM) and Okiep Copper projects. These projects, which already have development plans in place, are excluded from the venture.
By bringing PCZM and Okiep to first production in the coming years, Orion expects to sell its first copper in late 2026 and aims to grow production to more than 50,000 tonnes a year by the decade’s end.
In previous decades, Okiep consistently produced 30,000-40,000 tonnes of copper a year under the ownership of Newmont and Gold Fields.
In November, the group signed a nonbinding term sheet with Glencore for up to $250m in financing and concentrate offtake, marking a major step in its transition from a pure exploration company to a developer and operating copper miner.
“This is a significant milestone for Orion and a strong endorsement of the potential of our Northern Cape exploration portfolio,” said Orion MD Tony Lennox.
Jacob Webster
www.businessday.co.za
