The organisers of this year’s Mining Indaba worked hard to try to make mining look cool, renaming the main stage the “Disrupters Stage” and insisting the main speakers talk about disruption not just ore grades or incline shafts.
But the instinctive health and safety response to the acrobats who graced the opening of the main stage was a reminder that this was a mining audience. And in a sense the indaba reflected the extent to which mining has in the past couple of years become cool in its own right.
One of the big themes of this year’s conference was that of critical minerals, in particular the critical minerals required for the batteries, wind farms, solar panels and other technologies needed to decarbonise the world (the US and other governments’ lists also include a bunch of metals critical for a burgeoning global defence industry, but leaving that aside...)
There can be no question that the world will not be able to meet net-zero targets without an adequate supply of the copper, cobalt, nickel and other “green” minerals that are required. Nor would it be able to power the electronic technologies we all depend on.
While CEOs Barrick’s Mark Bristow and Sibanye-Stillwater’s Neal Froneman would question why some metals should be deemed critical and others not, they make the point that the hype around green metals has “awakened the conversation” about the difference mining makes to everyday life — that if done responsibly and in the right way, mining is critical to enable people to live better lives.
The importance of the minerals themselves is one piece of that, and there were so many green energy related sessions this week that some wondered whether it was an energy indaba or a mining one. But the other piece is the transformative impact mining can have on the lives of communities and of whole nations. One may not want to go as far as the “rock star” presenter of the past 30 indabas, Ivanhoe chief Robert Friedland, who told the packed audience that mining wasn’t about making money but about making history.
However, with global miners under growing pressure to demonstrate to governments, regulators and communities that their projects are worth hosting, the indaba is increasingly a showcase for what Friedland calls “mining for purpose”.
Global miners such as Barrick and Ivanhoe developing mega projects in central Africa are investing in the infrastructure required to support these, including hydroelectric dams and railway lines, bringing power and transport to communities and countries as well as their own mines. Mining companies in parts of Africa are tackling health crises — such as malaria — which improves the productivity of their own workers but also benefits whole communities.
Regulators and communities are demanding that miners mine responsibly and improve people’s lives if they are to have a social licence to operate. But customers are also starting to scrutinise the supply chains of the metals and minerals that go into their cellphones, jewellery or motor vehicles. That’s a growing issue for so-called green metals, which may not be that green if they are mined using fossil fuels or vast loads of scarce water. But it’s becoming an issue for a wider range of minerals, and the indaba reflected that.
The major global motor manufacturers were all there for the first time. Mercedes, Toyota, BMW and the like are customers for platinum group metals autocatalysts used in conventional motor vehicles, as well as the lithium, cobalt and other minerals used for electric vehicle batteries. They need to make sure there are secure sources of supply. But they also need to be sure of the integrity of supply chains, and minimise the reputational risk to their brands that could result from child labour, poor safety practices or environmental degradation.
In gold, as in diamonds a few years ago, the World Gold Council is working on an initiative to make the provenance of each bar of gold transparent, so that buyers know where it came from and can check on whether it was mined responsibly.
This week’s Mining Indaba broke attendance records, with 11,000 registered delegates — a far cry from the 300 who met at the first indaba 30 years ago. The event has become an African event. And it was the rest of Africa, not SA, that was for the most part the focus of the huge interest from international investors. Various numbers are bandied about, but Africa is estimated to have about 30% of the world’s mineral reserves and is home to some 40% of the minerals now deemed critical, so the chase is on.
International mining companies, large and small, have been burnt many times on the continent, whose uncertain governance and stability still pose big risks — which is why the countries that are reforming are the big drawcards. Zambia and the DRC are right up there on investors’ lists, but so too are countries such as Angola.
SA is not. One only had to hear Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema’s keynote address to see why. “The last time I attended the indaba in 2022 we made the case that now is the time to invest in the Zambian mining sector. Since then a number of investments have been made and are already bearing fruit,” he said, going on to list billions of dollars worth of projects that are under way. It made president Cyril Ramaphosa look embarrassed. As Anglo American’s Duncan Wanblad rather kindly said, SA’s noisy democracy needed a lot of talking, which takes a long time to translate into action.
Cape Town itself is a cool tourist destination, which is one reason the indaba has become what Rio Tinto’s Sinead Kaufman called a centre of gravity for the mining industry. SA itself is sadly far from cool as a mining investment destination, despite its rich resources. But it still has the infrastructure most other African mining jurisdictions don’t, even if that infrastructure is failing. And it has the mining expertise and financial architecture to support a mining revival.
The government is going to have to do serious somersaults to make it easier to mine here if it wants to make history.
• Joffe is editor-at-large.
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