China's largest manganese miner Guangxi DaMeng Manganese Industry has lately signed an agreement of intent to develop a manganese mining program in South Africa, as revealed by an insider at the company. The estimated reserves of the mine in question reach 430 million mt.
The company insider added that the government of South Africa holds the ownership of the mine. The company intends to develop the mine by itself but has not released any investment details.
In December 2009, Guangxi DaMeng Manganese Industry acquired a 42 percent stake in Parliamentary Monitoring Group in South Africa in order to participate in that country's mining industry.
Due to the low grade of manganese resources in China, the demand for high grade manganese resources in the country is satisfied by overseas supplies. As the largest global manganese importer, China imported 7.5712 million mt of manganese in 2008, up 14.1 percent over 2007.
Manganese reserves in South Africa account for 80 percent of global reserves.