“Mining Indaba has been a significant platform for Africa’s mining industry for almost three decades. It is the only place where the mining community comes together to share perspectives and learnings that can spark change and ultimately, drive investment,” says Simon Ford, Portfolio Director for Investing in African Mining Indaba.

Ford says the record-breaking Mining Indaba in May 2022 set the tone for the industry and for post pandemic events. As the world cautiously emerged from the global pandemic in 2022, the focus was on getting Africa’s myriad economies back on track.

And while ESG as an investment imperative and the social licence to operate continue to underpin the values of Mining Indaba, we are entering a new chapter in both pan-African and global economies, he says.

“Therefore, the theme for 2023’s Mining Indaba is ‘Unlocking African Mining Investment: Stability, Security, and Supply’. This captures the very real geopolitical shifts and economic disruptions we are experiencing, and which are providing pressure points – and opportunities – within African mining as global economies seek security of supply, especially for their own energy transitions, as well as the raw materials and precious metals to bolster their economic power,” says Ford.

This year’s programme will delve into integral economic empowerment strategies, ways to support supply chain security for the energy transition and seizing opportunities to capitalise on the commodities super cycle.

A number of new initiatives and programmes will also be debuted the year. These include the Explorers Showcase, the Junior MINE and the Official Government Leaders Programme.

“One particular programme we are excited about for 2023 is the Explorers Showcase, where we want to showcase early stage explorers through presentations and core samples to help stimulate those much-needed conversations with investors. In this way we can help drive investment into every stage of the mining production cycle through explorers, to juniors and on to mid tiers and major mining companies,” says Tom Quinn, Head of Content at the Investing in Mining Indaba.

“The initiative is supported by the South Africa’s Department of Mineral Resources and Energy and AfriMine. To compliment this, we will run the Junior ESG Forum, as well our ESG Awards. We are also delighted to launch our new InfraTech @ Indaba content programme which combines our previous Mining 2050 and Infrastructure & Supply Chain streams into one platform, which will showcase leading suppliers and experts involved with the convergence of technology, infrastructure and critical supply chains in the mining sector.”

Delegates will also benefit from mainstay content streams during Indaba week including the Ministerial Symposium, Intergovernmental Summit, Green Metals Day, Sustainable Development Day, the Young Leaders Forum and the General Counsel Forum. Also making a return is the Innovation & Research Battlefield, which is a unique platform for academic institutions and start-ups to showcase their latest ideas.

“We are seeing a lot of early commitment and have no doubt this will be a sell out once again. With commodity prices remaining strong and demand for critical minerals, battery metals and rare earths really accelerating, we can expect this to translate to another bumper turnout and we are really excited to be back to our regular dateline in February,” says Ford.