The fifth annual Africa Mining Summit was held in Gaborone, Botswana, on 24-25 September this year. The event, which was opened by Eric Molale, Botswana’s Minister of Mineral Resources, Green Technology & Energy Security, attracted over 250 delegates from around Africa, including Ministers and Deputy Ministers of Mining and senior officials from 14 African countries.
The ‘match-making’ session at the Africa Mining Summit.
Organised by GRV Global, the Summit was held under the auspices of – and in partnership with – the African Union Commission and the Ministry of Mineral Resources, Green Technology & Energy Security of Botswana, with the goal of advancing the ‘Africa Mining Vision’.
Held now on a yearly basis, the event brings together suppliers who are looking to sell to the mining corporates, mining corporates who seek investment, investors who want to strike deals and government ministers who engage all groups to discuss new opportunities in their countries. A highlight of each conference is an extended session devoted to pre-arranged, 15-minute, ‘match-making’ meetings.
Keynote speakers this year included Boubacar Bocoum, Lead Mining Specialist at the World Bank; Professor Fred Cawood, Director of the Wits Mining Institute; Dr Gavin Andersson, Director, Andersson Afrika; and Lira Ralebese, Deputy Principal Secretary of Lesotho’s Ministry of Mining. The welcoming address was given by Hussien Hassan of the African Union Commission.
The Summit included sessions on the Africa Mining Vision; mining and finance; energy; junior mining; innovation; the supply chain; and the ‘Future Revolution’ (which looked at issues such as the Fourth Industrial Revolution and its impact on African mining).
In his opening address, Minister Molale pointed out that a long history of minerals exploration had largely failed to benefit the African continent’s development. He emphasised that minerals had to be extracted with the full consent of communities and also noted that countries in Africa needed to look beyond a dependence on their mineral resources and move towards being ‘knowledge-rich’ economies.
Boubacar Bocoum in his address to delegates dealt with the key drivers for a compliant mineral rent collection administration. He noted that minerals represented about 70 % of Africa’s total exports and 20 % of its GDP but questioned whether the continent was getting the returns it should from its minerals endowment, given that many African countries did not have adequate systems and capacities to drive compliant minerals payments.
In his presentation on junior mining, Charles Siwawa, CEO of the Botswana Chamber of Mines, pointed out that many mineral deposits discovered in recent years were often small in scale and of inferior grade and were not regarded as attractive by the large mining houses.
“The junior mining companies are suitable for this type of mineral exploitation with their abilities to reduce overheads and focus on the technical portion of the mining value chain,” he said. “Indeed, there is scope to suggest that the legislative authorities should look at provision for applying differential operational structures in the running of junior mining companies as opposed to large corporates without compromising safety and environmental considerations. This will to a large extent reduce overheads and make operations more sustainable.”
Although the Summit did not focus to any great extent on specific mining projects, several junior miners provided updates on their activities. Speakers included Cedric Sam, GM of Mupane gold mine, Botswana’s only active gold mine; Vivian Stuart-Williams of Deep South Resources, holder of the large tonnage Haib copper project in southern Namibia; Nchakha Moloi of Motjoli Resources, a junior resource company founded in 2004 with a significant project footprint in South Africa; and Dr Tony Harwood of Montero Mining, which is exploring for lithium in Namibia.
The conference was very ably chaired by James Campbell, MD of diamond explorer Botswana Diamonds (which is active not only in Botswana but also South Africa where it is focused on its Thorny River project in Limpopo Province). Summing up the Summit, he described it as a “unique, intimate, African conference” offering in-depth networking and a line-up of high-quality speakers. He noted that the 2018 Fraser Institute study had rated Africa the second least attractive continent for investment and said the Summit way had gone some way towards proposing solutions that would make the continent more investor friendly.
The next Africa Mining Summit, the sixth in the series, will be held on 2 and 3 September 2020, with the venue again being Gaborone.
Photos by Arthur Tassell
