Mining Indaba director of content Harry Chapman is confident that new investors and mining companies will be attracted to the 2017 Investment Discovery Forum (IDF), owing to its partnership with banking group Investec and investment services provider RBC Capital Markets, and programming that centres on roundtable discussions on current mining trends.

Investec and RBC Capital Markets were announced in November as supporters of the 2017 IDF, which will form part of the Investing in African Mining Indaba being held from February 6 to 9 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.

“With participation by these organisations, the IDF establishes the building blocks for the future growth of the conference, growing investor and mining company participation and focusing on the core of the Mining Indaba – investment into African mining. “We are very excited about the partnership between the IDF and Investec and RBC Capital Markets.”

Event organiser Mining Indaba launched the IDF in 2014 in response to market demand for a venue where investors and mining companies could meet privately, which, Chapman explains, is one of the opportunities investors and miners most prize in attending the Mining Indaba. He notes that the 2016 IDF tripled in size, compared with 2015, with the combination of fresh and popular programming and the broader investor programme already attracting registration from many new participants for 2017.

Chapman adds that the partnership demonstrates the event’s commitment to the investment community and its return to the core objective of encouraging investment into African mining.

“The support from these two leading organisations only further establishes our ongoing promise to be the preferred deal-making platform for mining in Africa . . . bringing together mining corporates who seek investment, investors who want to strike deals in the mining sector and government Ministers who engage both groups to discuss new projects in their countries. Over the past few years, the Mining Indaba has been evolving to better meet the changing needs of the African mining community.”

RBC Capital Markets is active in the mining, metals and natural resources sectors, bringing global expertise to the IDF programme. Last year, the company was involved in two notable mining projects with midtier gold producer Guyana Goldfields and the world’s largest precious metals streamer Silver Wheaton.

Investec is expected to bring to the IDF key clients from South Africa and around the globe that influence the mining industry.

Notably, in September, Mining Weekly reported that Investec Australia had undertaken a hedging facility with ASX-listed Blackham Resources to forward-sell a further 34 250 oz of gold from its Matilda gold project, in Western Australia, at an average price of A$1 774/oz.