The Investing in African Mining Indaba 2015 opened its doors at 7:00 on Monday morning. Thousands of delegates from over 110 countries filtered into the Cape Town International Convention Centre to discuss, discover, and shape the future of African Mining.
As always, the exhibition hall was abuzz with excitement with over 400 companies representing an impressive sampling of the world’s mining role players.
Our exhibition stand displayed an impressive array of stories demonstrating the shared value we aim to create for all our stakeholders, from our contributions to education to the everyday value of mining, to our FutureSmart™ approach to mining modernisation and innovation.
Heading into the afternoon, the welcoming began as Jonathan Moore, managing director of Mining Indaba took to the stage to get the pre-conference underway in preparation for Tuesday’s official opening.
Once executive Mayor of Cape Town, Patricia De Lille welcomed the delegation to her city, a panel discussion began on global commodities and exploration trends led by Raju Daswani, MD and editor of Metal Bulletin – Metals, Minerals & Mining Division. The consensus being that Africa is going to play a big role in the global economy in decades to come. The question is: How can mining help Africa grow so Africa can do the same for mining?
The keynote address for the day was delivered by Mining Indaba veteran, Dr Dambisa Moyo, a globally recognised economist who has ranked in Time Magazine’s top 100 most influential people. With an academically backed up outlook, it was her belief that the next 40 years will be a low growth period as the dynamics of politics and economies shift.
After this, the day turned towards commodity reviews, where various experts and analysts delved into commodities including platinum group metals, iron ore, coal, diamonds and gold.
As the official opening of the 2015 Mining Indaba, Tuesday is set to be the biggest and most notable day of the conference. You can expect:
- The Minister of Mineral Resources, Ngoako Ramatlhodi will be delivering a welcome address
- CEO of our Platinum business, Chris Griffith, will be delivering a keynote address on modernisation and its role in building a sustainable mining industry in South Africa.
- Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair, will be delivering a keynote presentation
- CEO of our Coal SA business, Themba Mkhwanazi, will be joining a panel discussion on unlocking greater shared value for all stakeholders in the mining sector
- Our head of government relations, Richard Morgan, will be on a panel discussing the issue of maximising the impact of extractives for human development in Africa
- We will be co-hosting the annual Mining Indaba Gala Dinner, a networking event for delegates. Here our platinum and diamond businesses will demonstrate what shared value is all about