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Definition

A hard, corrosion-resistant, brittle metal processed through a smelter into ferrochrome and used as an additive to make stainless steel. South Africa produces about 60% of the world's chromium (mainly as a by-product of platinum group metals mining) with Khazakhstan, Zimbabawe, Turkey, India and Finland producing the rest. South Africa has been forced to sell the raw material, mainly to China because the cost of electricity in the country is too high for smelters to operate profitably. In 2020, the government considered applying an export tax to chromium to encourage local production. The Department of Trade and Industry wants South Africa to produce 10m tons of ferro-chrome per annum and hence the chromium export tax.

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