Machel, Blair head to SA for Mining Indaba

30 January 2015

Graça Machel, the president of the Foundation for Community Development, is the keynote speaker for sustainable development at the Investing in African Mining Indaba, taking place from 9 to 12 February in Cape Town.

She joins Tony Blair, the former prime minister of the United Kingdom, as the keynote speaker. Other speakers include:

Robert Friedland, executive chairman and founder of Ivanhoe Mines;
Anita Marangoly George, senior director for global practice on energy and extractive industries at World Bank Group;
Dambisa Moyo, author and global economist;
Rob Hersov, founder and chairman of Invest Africa;
Jim O'Neill, chairman of Cities Growth Commission;
Bob Diamond, founder director of Atlas Mara;
Paolo Scaroni, vice-chairman of Rothschild; and,
Ashish Thakkar, founder director of Atlas Mara.

Mining thought leaders and some of Africa's largest dealmakers are among the delegates – expected to number around 7 000 – from more than 110 countries.

The Mining Indaba unites investors and dealmakers from around the world with attractive mining opportunities throughout Africa. The conference emphasizes the myriad investment opportunities in the sector from majors to juniors, brownfields to exploration.

As the world's preferred platform for deal-making in African mining, delegates should expect to hear: a global perspective on the investment climate, status of current and emerging mining projects across Africa, and insights on the current mining scenarios in Africa's most attractive mining jurisdictions.

"The 2015 Mining Indaba features a number of substantial investments we have made under our new ownership. These investments, made at a time when other events and the overall sector are contracting, reaffirms our belief that the long-term outlook for Africa mining is excellent and our commitment for the Mining Indaba to remain the premier forum for uniting investors, mining companies and mining ministers," explains Jonathan Moore, the managing director of Mining Indaba.

There will also be corporate presentations from: C-level executives representing approximately 40 of Africa's top and emerging mining players, 20 of the continent's most progressive mining ministers, and industry thought leaders driving African mining into the next phase.

The annual Investing in African Mining Indaba is the world's preferred destination in African mining. It is positioned better than ever to deliver an unparalleled deal-making and discovery platform for global investors and African mining companies, he says.

Investing in African Mining Indaba, or the Mining Indaba, has been running for two decades. The annual professional conference dedicated to the capitalisation and development of mining interests in Africa. It is the world's largest mining investment conference, the world's third largest mining conference, and Africa's largest mining event. It serves as the pathway for foreign investments into Africa's mining value chain – opportunities ranging from small diamond deposits to mega coal projects. The Mining Indaba is now part of Euromoney Institutional Investor.

"Global interest in African mining tripled from the early 1990s to 2011, with the mining industry at first cushioned from the 2008 financial crisis as the traditional safe haven of gold exercised its appeal," says Moore. "The gold bubble this created was sufficiently substantial and sustained for benefits to flow through to secondary metals and secondary markets."

For the past year and a half, though, the mining sector has experienced challenges, as corrections to this curve brought down commodity prices and impacted value. For investors, on the other hand, this means great value can be found right now, both on the commodity markets themselves and in the stock markets that trade in mining and mining-related companies.

Looking ahead, we see a bright outlook for the resources produced by the mining industry, as all indicators show vital world economies – Europe, the USA and China – will rebound in 2015.

"As African economies have become increasingly stable and shown excellent growth, overseas investors have become more comfortable with placing investment on the continent. Doors have opened to regions and projects that were considered off limits some years previously," he adds.

The numbers:

110 countries and territories across six continents are represented;
35 African and non-African government delegations participate;
2 300 international companies are represented;
400 sponsoring companies represent an impressive sampling of the world's largest mining companies by market capitalisation;
Billions of American dollars of foreign investment have been channelled into the African mining value chain throughout the last 19 years of the annual Mining Indaba.

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