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查看配图：Manganese Metal Co.Manganese Metal Co.’s new plant in Mbombela, South Africa, is producing battery-grade manganese sulphate samples for potential customers to test. Credit: Manganese Metal Co.
South Africa, the world’s largest manganese producer, is expanding into battery materials but needs buyers willing to pay more than Chinese suppliers charge.
Privately held Manganese Metal Co. (MMC) has completed commissioning of a plant in Mbombela, formerly Nelspruit, about 350 km by road northeast of Johannesburg. Designed to produce 6,000 tonnes annually of high-purity manganese sulphate monohydrate (HPMSM), the plant is now making samples for potential customers to test, chief marketing officer Morné Ruiters said in an Oct. 8 interview.
“In the absence of customers wanting to pay a premium above Chinese, we will not be able to compete,” Ruiters said, adding that buyers seeking alternatives cite geopolitics and supply security. “You don’t want to put all your eggs in one country basket.”
MMC expects commercial sales to begin in the fourth quarter of 2027. Its progress illustrates the challenge facing South Africa: abundant manganese resources and a working processing plant don’t guarantee a competitive place in a supply chain dominated by China. The company’s expansion comes as South Africa implements a critical minerals strategy aimed at increasing domestic processing and tackling infrastructure bottlenecks.
Chinese supplies
South Africa, Gabon and Ghana—the world’s three largest manganese producers—accounted for about 73% of global mined output in 2025, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Yet China produced 97% of the battery-grade manganese sulphate last year used further along the supply chain, according to London-based critical materials research firm Project Blue.
Major manganese miners in South Africa include South32 (ASX, LSE, JSE: S32), which operates the Mamatwan and Wessels mines; Assmang, the African Rainbow Minerals (JSE: ARI)–Assore joint venture operating Black Rock; and Tshipi Borwa, jointly owned by Exxaro Resources (JSE: EXX) and Jupiter Mines (ASX: JMS). All four operations lie in the Northern Cape’s Kalahari manganese field.
China’s established capacity and ability to adjust output to customers’ requirements have supported reliable supplies for more than a decade, Tanisha Schultz, a Cape Town-based senior analyst at Project Blue, said in emailed answers to The Northern Miner.
A further obstacle is the slow development of plants to make precursor cathode active material (pCAM) from manganese sulphate, Schultz said. They produce material used to manufacture battery cathodes.
“The limited development of pCAM production capacity outside China is probably one of the bigger constraints,” Schultz said. “HPMSM demand is closely linked to pCAM manufacturing, and the cancellation or postponement of several Western pCAM projects has reduced the potential customer base for emerging HPMSM producers.”
Paying for security
Some buyers have shown a willingness to pay more for supply outside China, Schultz said. She pointed to Euro Manganese (TSXV, ASX: EMN), which is developing the Chvaletice project in the Czech Republic, and its non-binding term sheet with French battery maker Verkor.
Announced in January 2023, the term sheet proposed pricing linked to a Western benchmark and a minimum price intended to help Euro Manganese meet its project financing debt covenants. While it could represent pricing above the Chinese benchmark, Schultz said neither the premium nor the floor price has been disclosed. It doesn’t establish what buyers are actually paying.
Schultz also identified a planned precursor plant in Finland by China’s CNGR Advanced Material as an example of the setbacks facing potential customers. CNGR withdrew from the Hamina project in April 2025, citing difficult market conditions. Its partner, state-owned Finnish Minerals Group, took full ownership and said it would reassess whether to proceed.
Most of the potential buyers MMC has dealt with want an alternative to Chinese supply, whether for geopolitical reasons, supply security or business continuity, Ruiters said. The company already encounters similar purchasing decisions in its manganese metal business.
But customers’ interest in diversification isn’t the same as a signed supply agreement.
MMC is now sending customers samples from the plant for testing, with container-sized batches to follow if they meet requirements, Ruiters said. Some buyers have already completed site visits and audits covering sustainability, quality management and social standards.
Customer approval takes six to 12 months, and MMC hopes to sign its first supply agreements within that period, he said. The company may then pause production while awaiting commercial agreements or keep running to build inventory.
Costly conversion
MMC’s new plant uses a process it calls “metal to crystal.” High-purity manganese metal is dissolved in sulphuric acid, further purified and crystallized into manganese sulphate monohydrate.
Using an already purified metal gives MMC a route into the battery market from its existing refining operation. However, making that intermediate metal also adds an energy-intensive step.
Some producers outside China have adopted the same approach to meet strict purity requirements, but its energy consumption increases processing costs and limits competitiveness against Chinese suppliers and projects using a direct ore-to-sulphate route, Schultz said.
New entrants also face the difficulty of scaling from pilot plants to commercial production. Low recoveries and production yields can drive costs higher during the early stages, she said.
South Africa’s own industrial constraints compound the challenge. Rising electricity prices, logistics problems and earlier power shortages have weakened domestic processing competitiveness, while China has expanded industrial capacity across numerous commodities, Ruiters said.
Expansion funding
MMC is seeking financing for a second metal-to-crystal plant, known as MTX-2, with planned annual capacity of 24,000 to 30,000 tonnes, Ruiters said. That would bring total HPMSM capacity to between 30,000 and 36,000 tonnes a year.
Shareholders funded the initial plant internally, but outside financing is required for the larger project, he said.
South Africa’s Industrial Development Corp. and the European Investment Bank are conducting final due diligence, with site visits scheduled for this week, Ruiters said. MMC estimates that a second plant producing 24,000 tonnes a year would cost about R500 million ($43 million).
Due diligence doesn’t amount to a funding commitment, and MMC hasn’t provided a construction timetable for the second plant.
Direct from ore
The proposed expansion is separate from MMC’s longer-term plan to produce battery-grade sulphate directly from ore, removing the intermediate metal step. The company outlines a roughly 30,000-tonne annual ore-to-crystal plant beyond 2030, with development tied to the adoption of battery chemistries containing more manganese.
For emerging suppliers, the financing challenge sits alongside uncertainty about where future customers will operate. Chinese producers remain competitive across manganese chemicals, cathode precursors and finished cathode active material (CAM). In Europe, relatively few barriers to importing Chinese precursors add to the pressure on local production, Schultz said.
That creates a trade-off for automakers and governments seeking more geographically diverse supply chains.
“Basically, China remains a highly competitive supplier across the battery materials value chain, from battery-grade manganese products to pCAM and CAM,” Schultz said. “Access to lower-cost Chinese materials helps to contain battery manufacturing costs, ultimately supporting more affordable electric vehicles.”