Former Zimbabwean Finance Minister Tendai Biti, who now functions as a human rights and labour lawyer, pleaded a strong case for the reinvention of mining in Africa when he pointed out that Africa’s 24 mineral-rich countries have been significantly outdone by their mineral-poor counterparts when measured in gross domestic product (GDP) and Gini coefficient terms. Read on page 14 of this edition of Mining Weekly of Biti’s call for the creation of sustainable developmental models in Africa’s mineral-endowed countries that optimise backward, forward and especially spatial linkages. “If ever there’s a lesson in the current slump, it’s the need for diversification,” Biti told the 2016 Investing in African Mining Indaba, adding that significant opportunities existed in Africa’s mining countries for gross capital formation in energy and transport and investment openings were wide in agriculture, information technology and in fisheries for sea-linked nations.

Biti’s comments dovetailed perfectly with those of Credit Suisse Securities chairperson Rick Menell, who told the Mining Indaba that the incipient stage of Africa becoming a factory to the world was already becoming discernable. His comments, as can be red on page 16 of this edition of Mining Weekly, were made in the context of a panel discussion in which Invest Africa CEO Robert Hersov and Zambian Presidential candidate Hakainde Hichilema added the important need for host governments and private-sector investors jointly to leverage economic diversity off natural resources. Interestingly, this is just what the forebears of Menell and Hersov did in Johannesburg years back. They leveraged off mining to create diverse industry that is still going strong today. Now Africa’s large resource base is providing a basis for the continent’s new phase of development, with the physical location of the resources promoting infrastructure development, including information technology infrastructure and consequent urbanisation – a potential repeat of what happened in China but with an even stronger latent mining underpin. Hichilema, known as HH, who will be standing for President in Zambia’s August 11 elections, emphasised the importance of those managing public affairs in Africa ensuring policy stability, predictability and building the economy as a whole through diversification.

Anglo American CEO Mark Cutifani’s Indaba comments on making the right choices in the face of accelerating change also resonated with the comments of Biti, Menell and Hersov, in that he drew attention to the past benefits of Anglo on the South African economy. Cutifani recalled how the 99-year-old company became part of creating or building a wide array of other companies along the way, including paper maker Mondi, South African Breweries and more recently the empowered Exxaro and Shanduka. Great success stories with South Africa at their roots, many of which millions of South Africans have a deep financial interest in through their public and private pension funds, which are among Anglo’s biggest shareholders, or as equity partners in its businesses, or as employees – just what Africa sees as being crucial now.