Indaba plans to address hard topics ‘face on’
TOPICAL AFFAIRS This year's Joburg Indaba will address relevant issues, such as global trade and geopolitical realignment, an underperforming logistics network, an ageing workforce and a widening skills and demographic gap
The programme for the upcoming Joburg Indaba conference revolves around one connecting idea: South African mining has to convert a period of real volatility into a “durable advantage”, says Joburg Indaba chairperson Bernard Swanepoel.
The event will address relevant issues, such as global trade and geopolitical realignment, an underperforming logistics network, an ageing workforce and a widening skills and demographic gap, which are all negatively impacting the industry simultaneously.
The Indaba’s role, adds Swanepoel, is to force honest conversations about whether these pressures can be converted into opportunity – including in respect of critical minerals demand, beneficiation and technology adoption – which requires urgent policy and operational solutions, particularly on freight rail and ports.
“We can talk about volatility every year and feel very clever about it, but geopolitics, logistics, energy and capital are all hitting the industry at the same time, and pretending otherwise doesn’t help anyone,” he stresses.
Swanepoel will aim to encourage those attending the Joburg Indaba to be frank about what is actually fixable and then start working on it.
The opening day of the Joburg Indaba – to be held on October 7 and 8, at The Inanda Club, in Sandton, Johannesburg – will address geopolitical shocks, commodity and supply-chain pressure, local elections, policy and investor confidence, logistics reform and critical minerals, says event organiser Resources 4 Africa CEO Paula Munsie.
The second day’s talking points will focus on the energy transition, life after mines close, technology and AI, the future of iron-ore, generational and gender transformation, and rising cost pressures on capital allocation.
“Our ambition as organisers is for delegates to leave with a clear picture of where the industry actually stands, [to have attained] practical relationships and, ideally, a small number of concrete commitments they can act on,” she says.
A policy position taken further, a partnership formed or an investment conversation started because of the Joburg Indaba is the sort of progress the event aims to catalyse.
“The event, now in its fourteenth year, will build on the 2025 agenda that looked at how mining could drive long-term growth, resilience and inclusive development,” adds Munsie.
Additionally, a dedicated session on AI opportunities and risks in mining has been added, alongside a session directly addressing generational and gender power transfer in African mining leadership, which she says reflect issues that have moved from side-line conversations to main-stage topics.
“Every session keeps the Indaba’s signature format of in-conversation interviews and chaired panels, followed by open audience question-and-answer sessions, which is what most attendees say sets it apart from a conventional conference.”
Munsie says introducing a session dedicated entirely to generational and gender power dynamics deepens the previous year’s focus on skills and inclusion, shifting the dialogue from identifying required industry skills to determining who will actually step into future leadership roles.
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