The African Exploration Mining and Finance Corporation (AEMFC), South Africa’s state-owned mining company, is actively seeking partnerships with mining companies in South Sudan.

The country is itself is home to the continent’s largest and most sophisticated mining industry, as well as the largest known global reserves of platinum-group metals, manganese, chromite and gold.

South Sudan on the other hand is in the early stages of building its mining sector, hoping to leverage rising demand for critical and industrial minerals to harness estimated domestic reserves of copper, gold, diamonds and limestone.

"Our approach is public-private partnerships; that is the level of cooperation we are looking to pursue," says Moroasereme Ntsoane, General Manager of Corporate Strategy and Planning, AEMFC.

"What we are looking to do with our partners in South Sudan is not only the valuation of minerals, but also adopting a much broader collaborative approach, where we look at issues around capacity building, making key improvements to the regulatory environment, using our experience in mining and making sure that we collaborate with our partners here to render an attractive environment for investors," he adds. "It’s no longer about coming in and purely digging minerals out of the ground."

Separately, South Africa’s Council for Geoscience has expressed strong interest in geothermal exploration activities in the East African region, particularly as South Sudan neighbours the East African Rift System that is estimated to hold over 10,000 MW of geothermal potential.