This year’s Investing in African Mining Indaba – to be held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre from February 6 to 9 – is expected to be ‘bigger than ever’, owing to strong commodity prices and an increase in demand for critical minerals, as well as battery and rare earths metals.

“We saw a record-breaking Mining Indaba in May 2022 that really set the tone for the industry and for post-pandemic events as we lead up to February 2023. We have seen a lot of early commitment and have no doubt that this will be a sell-out event once again.

“It remains the premier place where the mining community comes together to share perspectives that can spark change and, ultimately, drive investment,” enthused Mining Indaba organisers Hyve Group.

Mining Indaba portfolio director Simon Ford said that more than 7 000 delegates were expected at this year’s event, including high-level delegates.

Further, owing to Covid-19 restrictions being lifted, the event will operate at full capacity.

The event is themed Unlocking African Mining Investment: Stability, Security and Supply, which aims to encourage investment in African mining activities.

Hence, the Indaba will outline economic empowerment strategies, how to support supply chain security for the energy transition and how to seize opportunities to capitalise on the commodities supercycle.

New programmes and initiatives will also be introduced, such as the Explorers Showcase, the Junior MINE and Official Government Leaders Programme.

“One particular programme we are excited about for 2023 is the Explorers Showcase, where we want to showcase early stage explorers through presentations and core samples to help stimulate those much-needed conversations with investors. In this way we can help drive investment into every stage of the mining production cycle through explorers, to juniors and on to midtiers and major mining companies,” said Mining Indaba content head Tom Quinn.

Mining major BHP Billiton is sponsoring the Explorers Showcase and aims to align its new BHP Xplorer initiative – supported by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy and nonprofit organisation Afrimine – with the Mining Indaba.

Other Initiatives

The Infratech @ Indaba content programme will be launched at the Mining Indaba and combines the previous Mining 2050 and Infrastructure and Supply Chain streams into one platform.

This platform will showcase leading suppliers and experts involved in the convergence of technology infrastructure and critical supply chains in the mining sector.

Other mainstay content streams will include the Ministerial Symposium, the Intergovernmental Summit, Green Metals Day, Sustainable Development Day, the Young Leaders Forum and the General Counsel Forum.

The Innovation and Research Battlefield will also be featured as a platform for academic institutions and startups to showcase their latest ideas.

The Mining Indaba is also introducing its partnership with global climate consultancy the Carbon Trust, Afrimine, the Young Leaders Network and nonprofit organisations Women in Mining South Africa and Women in Mining UK.

“We are excited to be back to our regular calendar slot in February. We are always looking to improve how we do things and, through industry feedback, we are introducing various new initiatives and programmes.

“We are also enhancing every aspect of the show delivery and hope to continue to affirm the importance of the Mining Indaba in driving positive policy change across the continent,” concluded the Hyve Group.