MINING INDABA’S NEW HORIZON OF OPPORTUNITIES

Byline: Jonathan Moore, Managing Director, Mining Indaba™.

After two decades, Investing in African Mining Indaba™ is able to look back with pride – and forward with enthusiasm.

Global interest in African mining tripled from the early 1990s to 2011, with the mining industry at first cushioned from the 2008 financial crisis as the traditional safe haven of gold exercised its appeal. The gold bubble this created was sufficiently substantial and sustained for benefits to flow through to secondary metals and secondary markets.

For the past year and a half, though, the mining sector has experienced challenges, as corrections to this curve brought down commodity prices and impacted value. For investors, on the other hand, this means great value can be found right now, both on the commodity markets themselves and in the stock markets that trade in mining and mining-related companies.

Looking ahead, we see a bright outlook for the resources produced by the mining industry, as all indicators show vital world economies – Europe, the USA and China – will rebound in 2015. Furthermore, the long-term demand for minerals will inevitably be upward as population growth continues globally, driving demand for resources. This will be entrenched by increased urbanisation and a growing middle-class in China, India and Africa. Already, over a third of Africa’s 1 billion inhabitants live in urban areas and that proportion is expected to rise to one half by 2030. Africa’s total urban population is expected to exceed those of China and India by 2050. As African economies have become increasingly stable and shown excellent growth, overseas investors have become more comfortable with placing investment on the continent. Doors have opened to regions and projects that were considered off limits some years previously.

We are proud that Mining Indaba has been the platform providing the catalyst for expansion. After two decades, it is a benchmark of its kind, having become much larger and more significant than simply just an event. As the whole mining investment value chain has been drawn in to participate in recent years, Mining Indaba has truly become where the ‘world connects with African mining.’

One of the biggest shifts that Mining Indaba has brought about has been putting a human face into mining deals. Physically going to a mining conference to meet with partners face to face was not previously a major part of the industry. Now the special magic of Mining Indaba lasts for more than four days a year – the partnerships made here are capitalised on and those linkages grow exponentially. Typically the pattern we have observed is that African mining companies attend Mining Indaba as delegates one year, may be part of an official African national delegation the next and be exhibiting themselves the year after that. Part of the reason for this win-win effect is the strong relationships we have built with African countries. This is underlined by the fact that, so far, Mining Indaba 2014 has been the greatest year of demand for attendance and presentations by African countries.