Cape Town: African Mining Indaba Attracts Investors and Dealmakers

The 25th Annual Investing in African Mining Indaba, which brings together more than 750 investors and dealmakers, kicks off in Cape Town this morning.

The Indaba is the world’s largest gathering of mining’s most influential stakeholders and decision-makers vested in African mining. This year’s theme for the four-day indaba is ‘Championing Africa’s Sustainable Economic Development’.

The unrivalled networking is matched by an agenda that features President Cyril Ramaphosa, who will be joined by President of Ghana Nana Akufo-Addo, and 35 mining ministers including Minister Gwede Mantashe who is expected to give an opening address.

The mining event will also be attended by the most influential people in African mining who will look into the level of expertise and access to the entire mining value chain and the future of the industry.

The South African government views the Indaba as a strategic forum to attract and promote foreign direct investments in different industries of the mining sector.

The Department of Trade and Industry’s (dti) Industrial Policy Action Plan (IPAP) identifies mineral beneficiation as an area of work that presents an abundance of opportunities which investors can take advantage of in order to grow the mining sector.

This provides the massive potential of contributing to growing the country’s economy, creating jobs, transformation and eradicating poverty.

With this in mind government will demonstrate to delegates that the country is a competitive and investor-friendly destination that offers a unique combination of highly developed economic infrastructure and a vibrant emerging-market economy with sustainable investment opportunities.

Government has also commenced with various exploration projects.

One of these is the exploration and production of Southern Africa’s Deep Sea Stavenger Rig operations, situated 180km off the shore of Mossel Bay, Western Cape.

Ahead of the Indaba, Mantashe led a delegation from the department on a visit to the operation.

Speaking on the rig, Mantashe said this was one of the most important exploration projects underway in the country and is expected to boost investor confidence and contribute positively to the oceans economy.

“If we can discover oil and gas here, that will be a game changer for the country in terms of the economy. We hope that we will discover oil so that we can reduce our dependence on imported crude oil,” the Minister said.

Source: SAnews.gov.za