African Mining Indaba 2023

With the excitement of the Mining Indaba, there is much to discuss and dissect within the mining industry in South Africa. What is the African Mining Indaba and its significance to the mining industry and South Africa as a whole? We’ll discuss this and much more below!

What is the African Mining Indaba?

The Mining Indaba is an event held annually in beautiful Cape Town, South Africa that hosts people of all skill sets from across the globe. The Mining Indaba functions as a platform for professionals, innovators, inventors, investors, and visionaries to gather and get involved with high-impact networking, to learn about the latest trends in modern mining, become educated on new mining methods, and much more!

The theme for 2023’s Mining Indaba in Cape Town was Sustainability and Security. Now, more than ever, it’s imperative to contribute to a more sustainable future by any means necessary. The mining industry has a major part to play in this and the Mining Indaba has brought together hundreds of brilliant minds to share ideas and methods on how to assist towards a more sustainable future through improved mining practices.

What is the significance of Mining Indaba to South Africa specifically?

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Not only does the Mining Indaba offer a long list of benefits to those attending, it also supports the economy within South Africa by bringing in international tourism and funding. The Mining Indaba provides a major boost to the local economy in Cape Town and by extension, to South Africa as a whole. It was estimated that the Mining Indaba would contribute around R156,000,000 to GDP (gross domestic profit), of which 73% of that would be coming from international sources.

What was discussed about the theme of this years Mining Indaba?

One of the main focuses of the Mining Indaba this year is renewable energy and the role that battery minerals play in that. Battery minerals include copper, cobalt, lithium, manganese, and more. If you include tech minerals, then rare earth minerals would also feature. Amazingly, we have an abundance of all these minerals locally within South Africa.

This provides South Africa with a unique opportunity to become a world leader in battery and tech minerals.

As a company, GoldOre (Pty) Ltd. is very excited about the battery and tech mineral sector as we believe that our revolutionary invention, the MACH REACTORTM, can provide real value to those seeking to extract the maximum results from their projects.

What does GoldOre hope to achieve from the Mining Indaba?

GoldOre is aligned with most other businesses and individuals attending the Mining Indaba in the hopes to seek out and craft new opportunities that do not yet exist. The Mining Indaba truly creates the perfect setting for networking and learning valuable knowledge from others attending the event.

Specifically in the case of the MACH REACTORTM, the Mining Indaba opens many doors in exploring different applications for the MACH’s technology. Currently, the MACH REACTOR ™ is most often used in theflotation processes of the PGM and Base Metals sectors and also in gold leaching circuits.. With battery minerals, there could be other applications, waiting to be tapped into.  We’re hoping to leave this Mining Indaba having paved the way for business development and for research for a couple of years into the future.

What has the mood been like with regards to the Mining Indaba and is it permeating into the mining sector?

The mood has been quite electric and inspiring! With the restrictions brought from the Covid-19 pandemic in limiting public gatherings over the past 3 years, it’s caused several mining projects and similar businesses to be forced into hibernation. Now, as time carries on and we slowly recover from the pandemic, businesses are hungry for growth and are actively seeking out new opportunities to drive business forward. It’s so heartwarming and inspiring to see a renewed and rejuvenated interest in mining projects. It really leaves one feeling positive and inspired for the future.

Who will be attending the Mining Indaba and what can these attendees expect?

Previously the bulk of the delegates attending the Mining Indaba were mining houses with projects that require funding and potential investors. I’ve found that this year we are seeing participation from delegates from across the value chain of mining. This is key because as much as projects require funding, it is almost equally important to ensure that one extracts the maximum value from these projects and that project execution is done as sustainably as possible.

It’s important that mining companies embrace new technologies and adopt the new mindset that comes along with that. It’s also important for mining companies to welcome new methods when it comes to improving product economics as projects are developed through the various feasibility stages. From what I can sense, there will be a lot of competition for funding so it’s essential to find innovative ways to stand out and be noticed at this Mining Indaba.

Thankfully, the MACH holds a unique, specific edge amongst the sea of different technologies. With the revolutionary MACH REACTOR™, we’ve found unique ways to assist with the recovery of fine minerals often lost to tailings in flotation circuits and reducing the footprints which reduces the impact on the environment and improving the recovery of leaching systems. With the MACH, you’re getting more ounces for the same cost, it goes straight down to the bottom line which is precisely what everybody wants. 

In the year 2021, mining alone contributed over $200,000,000,000 to South Africa’s GDP.  When we think of that large amount of money, what is the importance of local communities benefiting and sharing minerals from the mining industry by people in those communities? 

That’s always been a challenge with mining houses in South Africa where previously, there has never been any meaningful consultation with local communities that are able to contribute or become a part of the value chain. This is a bit of a lost opportunity as there are many local entrepreneurs that could be mentored into providing a service to mines in their area. There’s work that can be done in this area to improve the support system of local communities. Although some companies are putting in effort to improve in this aspect, there is still much progress to be made here.

In any successful environment, there needs to be certain policy reliable tax regimes. Where does South Africa sit on this issue and are there ways it can be improved? 

Much to some people’s surprise, when travelling internationally, you will see that South Africa is not as bad off when compared to some other countries. It has happened before in other countries where there’s major investment into a project and suddenly all the rules and the whole landscape changes, which is something that no investor wants to see. Investors want to see stability in their investments and be able to accurately project incomes. The rules you set in the beginning should stay intact as closely as possible throughout the duration of the project. Although there are some areas that need attention, South Africa does well in this aspect.