The five-year research, development and innovation (RDI) strategy of the Mandela Mining Precinct (MMP) was approved in October 2024 after an extensive deep review, announces MMP executive director Julie Courtnage.

The five-year strategy, starting this year and concluding in 2030, aims to achieve year-on-year improvements by first regearing operations, then implementing necessary changes.

The strategy will involve yearly evaluation of the effects of these changes, and readjustment, based on registered impact.

Advanced in support of the South African Minerals Extraction Research, Development and Innovation strategy, the RDI strategy is intended to deliver systems-level innovation to the South African mining sector, across broad portfolios of research, to improve safety and productivity, reduce costs and drive a more sustainable approach to mining, Courtnage explains.

“The direction we envisage for the next five years takes us on a challenging path to an exciting vision – the African Mining Innovation Hub,” she says, adding that the envisaged hub is not a new name or a new identity, but “a state of being and operating”.

MMP’s new strategy enables it to engage in intentional and unusual ways with the increasingly complex and uncertain world of mining RDI.

Further, a framework for impact evaluation is planned, leading to what is expected to be MMP’s assessment of the impact resulting from its RDI work in terms of its impact on the rejuvenation of the sector.

The MMP strategy also provides the organisation scope to do work that may have positive impacts across all commodities, not only narrow reef, hard rock operations.

“The strategy aims to also help mining companies optimise digital opportunities while elevating skills and, consequently, promoting job creation. Most importantly, a priority objective is to create a hub for knowledge sharing and information flow for African mining RDI.”

Minerals and metals are at the centre of all global trends such as digital and circular economies, the just energy transition, technological and medical innovations, and infrastructure improvements.

The Event

In line with the theme of this year’s Investing in African Mining Indaba: ‘Future Proofing African Mining, Today’, the MMP emphasises its ethos of providing RDI for the modernising mining industry and ensuring that it is well informed of the emerging trends, risks and opportunities.

Courtnage notes that future-proofing is about anticipating potential associated changes, risks, challenges and opportunities, consequently ensuring that the industry is geared to accommodate them.

In elevating awareness about improvements these trends might offer, Courtnage will participate in a panel discussion at this year’s Mining Indaba to discuss challenges and offer perspectives on the theme: ‘Innovating the Future – Strategies for Effective Research Commercialisation in Mining’.

“We aim to offer clarity on the complexity of ‘strategies for effective research commercialisation in mining’, with all players getting a better sense of where they fit into the RDI or commercialisation system.”

Based on the industry’s identification of priority issues for African RDI mining innovation and commercialisation, Courtnage adds that the MMP can then facilitate the relevant RDI through careful planning and collaboration with industry stakeholders.

If accompanied by robust pilot testing, the innovations can be successfully brought to market, improving safety, human wellbeing, productivity, efficiency and sustainability in the mining industry, she notes.