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The 2020 instalment of the Investing in African Mining Indaba may not have had President Cyril Ramaphosa as a guest speaker like 2019 did, but this did not stop the annual event from attracting more leaders and delegates.
This is according to the Investing in African Mining Indaba's portfolio director Simon Ford, who spoke to Fin24 on the last day of the event in Cape Town.
Highlights from this year's Mining Indaba included two major announcements from Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe.
Mantashe said that mining companies would soon be allowed to generate their own power to ease pressure on Eskom. He also announced plans to develop a power generation entity outside of Eskom, which he expects to start gathering pace early next year.
But this year's Indaba was not without its challenges, as high-profile speakers fell away from the programme on multiple occasions during the week.
The 2019 Mining Indaba was always going to be a tough act to follow, due to Ramaphosa's appearance as the first sitting South African president to address the event.
This year was the first Mining Indaba to be hosted after a full year of the event being owned by Hyve Group. Hyve Group – formally known as ITE – acquired the Mining Indaba from fellow London Stock Exchange-listed company Euromoney in 2018 for £30m.
Significant growth
Ford told Fin24 that the Mining Indaba of 2020 had hundreds more delegates than the 2019 edition of the event, showing significant growth.
"It's the first full year that Hyve as a company has had an opportunity to run the event. If you look at the pure delegate numbers, we had about 6 200 in 2019 and we will be close to 7 000 in 2020. The number of clients in exhibitions, sponsors and companies have also increased since 2019," said Ford.
Ford said the number of governments and the number of heads of state visiting the Indaba also increased from last year. This year's Indaba included addressed from Sierra Leonean President Julius Maada Bio and Democratic Republic of Congo president Félix Tshisekedi.
"We know that the fact that these heads of state are coming shows that they believe this is the most important business platform for the mining sector in this continent," Ford said.
Ford said while Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union president Joseph Mathunjwa stayed away from the Indaba in protest against the Lily Mine rockfall in Barberton Mpumalanga in 2016, Ford said the event was open to discussion and hopefully working with the union leader again.
