February 2014
MODERN MINING
37
EVENTS
Left:
Anglo American’s
Khanyisile Kweyama
touched on the
“reputational degradation”
of the mining industry
in her address.
Far left:
Colin Barnett,
Premier of Western
Australia, was a
keynote speaker.
as being one potentially huge driver of the zinc
market in future.
Turning to Bristow, he expressed the view
that growing uncertainty about the
regulatory
environments
and
tax regimes
in Africa’s min-
ing jurisdictions was discouraging investment
in many African countries. He noted that the
Fraser Institute in Canada, which annually
surveys some 100 mining jurisdictions across
the world to rate their overall attractive-
ness to investors, had recently downgraded
Africa’s average PPI (Policy Potential Index)
for the fifth year running. Survey respondents
cited increasing uncertainty about African
countries’ intentions regarding their mineral
resources as the key factor in diminishing
investor confidence.
“The mining code reviews of the past few
years and those currently underway in a num-
ber of African countries have undoubtedly
aggravated this uncertainty by creating the
impression that their governments not only
want a bigger slice of the pie, they want to take
that before the pie is even baked,” he said. This,
he added, was happening at a time when the
gold mining industry was severely pressured
by the drop in the gold price and was cutting
back on exploration and project development.
“Randgold’s own experience has shown that,
despite the stresses on both sides, mutually
beneficial partnerships between governments
and miners are still possible,” Bristow said.
He cited Randgold’s involvement in Côte
d’Ivoire as one example of such a partnership.
Thanks to strong local relationships, the com-
pany was able to develop its
Tongon
mine in
the aftermath of a civil war and then commis-
sioned it successfully during another period of
strife. It also worked with the government in its
revision of the country’s mining code and this
cooperation has resulted in an investor-friendly
final draft currently being ratified.
Both Friedland and Bristow referred to the
need for mining companies to engage with
communities and to design sustainable projects
and both these themes were prominent at this
year’s Indaba. The
ICCM (International Council
on Mining & Metals)
, for example, co-hosted
a sustainable development session which saw
Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane
– the man
who succeeded Archbishop Desmond Tutu as
Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town – deliver
the keynote address. He said mining had to
address negative environmental and social
impacts but he also emphasised the need for
the industry to grow, urging governments to
facilitate investment and development in the
industry through fair regulation and taxation.
According to the ICCM, the sustainable
development session is designed to provide
a forum for open discussion between Mining
Indaba delegates and civil society stakehold-
ers. Such a forum is probably needed as the
Indaba has been attacked in recent years for
being “irrelevant” with a number of civil
society and faith groups even holding an
‘Alternative Mining Indaba’
– now in its fifth
year – in parallel with the Indaba itself. The
agenda of the Alternative Mining Indaba –
which this year was held across town at the
Ritz Hotel – is predictable enough and at the
end of its proceedings its organisers delivered
a ‘Declaration’ expressing their “deep concern
in how development is shaping investment
including extractives and the continued lim-
ited contribution of the extractive sector in the
