February 2014
MODERN MINING
39
EVENTS
The Mining Indaba – an alternative view
While it is an extremely popular event on the annual mining calendar, the
Mining Indaba has its share of detractors and critics. To take one example,
the ‘Financial Mail’s’ Sonzego Zibi, in a trenchant opinion piece published
in ‘Business Day’ during Indaba week, had this to say: “The Mining Indaba,
a gathering at which the voices of workers and affected communities are
expressly missing, is just another expensive junket. It is where those who
already benefit from a flawed system pretend to have a serious discussion
but in reality are just in Cape Town for a paid holiday. The Indaba has carried
on for too long, has achieved little to nothing and its relevance and format
need serious re-evaluation before it is disrupted by a protest one day.”
development agenda of African countries espe-
cially to the lives of ordinary people.”
The criticism of the mining industry – and of
the Mining Indaba – delivered by delegates to
the Alternative Mining Indaba tends to be ‘over
the top’ but the views expressed are likely to
grow ever more strident in the future. It is dif-
ficult to know exactly how the organisers of the
Mining Indaba can address this issue, beyond
what they are already doing. The Mining
Indaba is unashamedly an
investment confer-
ence
and to place too much emphasis on social,
labour and environmental issues could be fatal
to its character, diluting the very things – the
deal-making and networking, among them –
that have made it such a huge success in the
first place. It will be interesting to see how the
organisers view this challenge and how they
respond to it in future events.
Finally, an interesting question is whether
– in terms of delegates – the Mining Indaba
has peaked, given the decline (albeit modest)
in attendance seen this year. The likelihood –
at least in
Modern Mining’s
view – is that the
event’s future is secure and that it will resume its
upward trend the moment the mining industry
itself does. Certainly there is nothing else on the
horizon with the potential to rival it and it looks
set to remain as Africa’s premier mining confer-
ence and expo for years to come. As
Jonathan
Moore
, MD of the organisers, Mining Indaba
LLC, said after the conclusion of the event, “We
are proud of this 20th edition in which we were
able to launch many important initiatives to
ensure that Mining Indaba continues to be the
leader for mining investment events globally.”
Photos courtesy of Investing in African Mining Indaba™
(photographer: Anthea Davison)
