Huawei Digital Power Sub-Saharan Africa successfully hosted the Smart & Green Mining: Sustainability & Decarbonisation Summit. The summit attracted over 140 industry representatives, including government mining departments, leading mining companies, developers, and representatives from technical advisory firms. Attendees gathered to focus on intelligent and low-carbon mining, and to discuss the future development trends of the mining industry.

At the summit, James Tang, President of Huawei Digital Power Sub-Saharan Africa, delivered the opening remarks. He first provided an overview of Huawei's business operations and expressed his gratitude to customers and partners for their trust and support for Huawei's digital power business in Southern Africa. He emphasized that Huawei firmly believes that the digitalization, intelligentisation, and low-carbon transformation of mines are clear and irreversible trends. Huawei continues to invest in research & development (R&D) to offer stable, reliable, flexible, and efficient solutions to support the joint development of mining companies and partners.

Charlie Li, Executive Director of Huawei's Southern Africa Oil, Gas, and Mining Business Unit delivered a keynote speech titled "Smart Mining: Building a Smart Mining Ecosystem in Africa." In his speech, he emphasized that Huawei's smart mining business is built on 5G connectivity, AI intelligence, cloud platforms, and partnerships as driving forces, with localization as the foundation and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) as the direction, aiming to jointly create a smart mining ecosystem in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Wilco De Villiers, Vice President of Energy from DRA Global discussed how renewable energy can be utilized at various stages—from feasibility planning and consulting design to delivery and operation—to achieve low-carbon mining. He firmly believes that mines can achieve a commercial closed-loop system by adopting solar and storage microgrids, and there are already successful cases to draw from.

Wessel Wessels, CEO of Journey2Green shared insights on Palabora Mining Company's photovoltaic (PV) and battery energy storage (BESS) plant project: this is a revolutionary grid-forming initiative that marks a milestone in renewable energy stability. Although grid-following BESS currently dominates the market, grid-forming BESS will inevitably be the future direction. He called for Sub-Saharan Africa to adopt grid-forming BESS and urged the industry to make the right choice—preparing for the future and contributing to achieving stable grid-forming capabilities. Wessels also emphasized that there will be more collaboration with Huawei on mine projects in the future, as both parties complement each other's strengths, for the greater benefit of the industry.

Bryan Burrows, Head of Marketing for HDEC SA introduced the company's project cooperation with Huawei in the Southern Africa region. He analyzed the trends and challenges facing microgrids in mining areas and pointed out that smart microgrids have great potential in Southern Africa. He expressed hope that Huawei and HDEC would jointly explore a broader market for large-scale mines in the region and make solid contributions to providing green power for mines. Building on the solid foundation and successful collaboration established between HDEC and Huawei in the field of PV and BESS plant project in Sub-Saharan Africa, the two parties will further deepen their cooperation and expand new opportunities in the mining sector.

Regarding Huawei's six key microgrid technologies, Dr. He Hongwu, Chief Expert of Huawei Digital Power Microgrid, provided an in-depth explanation. "Huawei is committed to providing professional design consulting and service support throughout the entire lifecycle of microgrids to ensure highly stable power supply for mines and significantly improve their economic efficiency.” He said.  “We are willing to work closely with our customers and partners to jointly develop high-standard PV and storage intelligent microgrid solutions, aiming to illuminate 'power islands' around the world and empower various industries to enjoy safe, reliable, and cost-effective green power."

The summit concluded with the release of Huawei’s "Technical White Paper on Smart Microgrid Solution (Mining Scenario)," which presents cutting-edge technological achievements and exemplary commercial applications for the comprehensive grid construction era in mining power scenarios. This initiative aims to support the development of green mines and promote high-quality development in the mining industry across Sub-Saharan Africa, and globally.

As carbon neutrality and the transition to green mining have become widely accepted goals among mainstream mining companies, Huawei's integrated smart microgrid solution has demonstrated its critical value in the energy transition of global mining enterprises through successful applications in multiple projects. Huawei is committed to working hand in hand with mining customers and partners worldwide to lay a solid foundation for a thriving ecosystem of green mines and contribute to the application of green energy and sustainable development in the mining sector.