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Planning for 2015 Mining Indaba already under way

7th March 2014

By: Ilan Solomons

Creamer Media Staff Writer

  

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Planning for next year’s Investing in African Mining Indaba, which will again take place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC), from February 9 to 12, is already under way following the successful completion of the twentieth indaba last month.

“This year’s conference brought together 7 250 delegates from 110 countries across six continents, and attracted 2 100 international companies, 37 African government delegations and ten non-African government delegations,” US-based conference organiser Mining Indaba LLC group marketing director Maria Palombini tells Mining Weekly.

“The global mining market has undoubtedly been challenged over the last 12 months, which has impacted on industry stakeholders’ participation at other mining events worldwide. Despite these conditions, however, the Mining Indaba reaffirmed its position as the premier venue for African mining interests,” states Mining Indaba LLC MD Jonathan Moore.

He adds that the company continues to garner the support of its Africa-based partners to further serve a global community that considers the Mining Indaba a gateway to the African mining industry.

“We believe this year’s Mining Indaba was a successful and productive event, as several new initiatives were launched, many presentations on a brighter outlook for Africa for 2014 and 2015 were delivered and a great deal was heard from mining companies about their continued efforts to enforce sustainability practices in their organisations,” he says.

Palombini further states that, compared with last year’s statistics, this year’s Mining Indaba hosted many more participants from the African continent, representing 61% of the total delegation.

“We also registered an increase in the number of Middle Eastern and South American participants,” she points out, adding that the top three countries represented at this year’s indaba were Australia, South Africa and the UK.

Event Highlights

Palombini tells Mining Weekly that there was an emphasis on new products and events at this year’s conference, as well as a focus on corporate social investment and giving back to the underprivileged in South African society.

“We introduced several additional events, such as the first yearly Investment Discovery Forum, which took place on February 1 at the Westin Hotel, across the road from the CTICC. “This preconference programme focused on making deals in an exclusive face-to-face education and networking environment for accredited investors and mining executives,” she says.

Further, Palombini points out that the first edition of the Mining in African Country Investment Guide was published in collaboration with Singapore-based global business report provider Global Business Reports.

The guide, which was included in all the delegates’ complimentary Mining Indaba bags, provides detailed information about 20 major mining sites in Africa that offer investment opportunities.

“We also launched a Mining Indaba Daily News newspaper, which offered original editorials on session highlights, networking activities and other areas of interest. It was distributed before events started on the two main days of the conference,” she says.

This year also marked the launch of the Mining Indaba mobile application, which was produced in collaboration with professional services firm KPMG. It offered updates on event activities, provided mining-related thought leadership content from KPMG experts and streamed to-the-minute Mining Weekly coverage of the event.

Social Upliftment

Palombini adds that Mining Indaba LLC’s R330 000 bursary programme will assist four high-school graduates in pursuing engineering and mining-related studies at the Gauteng-based University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Pretoria this year.

“An additional R26 500 was provided for the Rural Educational Access Programme to assist five students in pursuing their tertiary studies in mining,” she states.

Moreover, R100 000 was donated to South African golfer Ernie Els’ foundation, Els for Autism South Africa.

“The ninth yearly Mining Indaba Golf Tournament partnered with Els for Autism South Africa and Els Wine Estate to raise the R100 000 from a portion of the tournament’s proceeds, which will go to Els’s foundation to enable affected children to have access to the special education required for their development, so they too can have a brighter future,” Palombini concludes.

Edited by Samantha Herbst
Creamer Media Deputy Editor

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