From February 9–12th 2026, the annual Investing in African Mining Indaba (Mining Indaba) was held in Cape Town – a major financial and strategic hub for the African mining industry.
Attracting the highest attendance in the event’s 32-year history, this year’s highly successful conference brought together mining companies, investors, government officials and industry stakeholders to network, share experiences and learn. Gerard Daniels’ Partners, Paul Howard and Nona Sichinava, outline these insights from the event and explore some of the trends, challenges and opportunities currently shaping this industry.
Welcoming a new era for African mining
Many companies with mining assets in Africa are starting to advance their projects. As a strategic hub for potential funders looking to invest in this market, Cape Town is an ideal location to host this major event.
“By bringing together many of the world’s best mining companies, service providers and financial institutions, along with high level ministerial delegations from across the continent, Mining Indaba creates opportunities for highly efficient and productive meetings between key stakeholder groups,” says Paul. “These discussions are important for facilitating the process, particularly during the early stage of negotiations. This unique event format helps to get everyone in the same room at the same time to find common ground and move these discussions forward.”
Building partnerships for sustainable growth
In keeping with this year’s theme: Stronger Together, Progress Through Partnerships, many of the presentations, panel events and discussions at Mining Indaba focused on partnership-led development and the need to work collaboratively – across the continent and across the oceans.
“The mining industry has shifted a lot of attention towards long-term value creation. Specifically, how the African continent can leverage its vast resource base to achieve sustainable economic and community gains,” says Nona. “This shift reinforces the need to work collaboratively in developing African resources and infrastructure. It also sets the expectation for mining activities to create value for the various national economies and local communities – not just the mining companies that operate there.”
Case studies in collaboration:
The value of industry and community partnerships
Paul took particular interest in case study presentations on Rio Tinto’s Simandou high grade iron ore project and the long awaited polymetallic Platreef Project for Ivanhoe Mines.
“With extended gestation, these internationally owned assets have the potential to deliver greater long-term value to local communities and economies. However, meeting these expectations required a significant commitment to realign the political frameworks and policies and to redesign project strategies and teams, delivery and funding models and partnering arrangements, ” says Paul. “Rio Tinto and Ivanhoe Mines also invested in building long-term, mutually beneficial partnerships with communities and the Guinean and South African governments to ensure long-term benefits are delivered in each country.”
It took a lot of time, effort and investment, but these projects now represent the future of collaboration in mining, setting the new industry standard for global partnerships and inclusive development.
The construction of an oncology centre at Springbok in South Africa provides another positive partnership example. “Developed by Vedanta Zinc International (VZI), this new facility provides critical cancer treatment to people living in the Northern Cape province, ensuring members of these communities no longer need to travel long distances or miss out on critical care,” says Paul. “With a number of mining operations in the province, it’s great to see Vedanta contributing to this type of community partnership and setting an example for others to follow.”
Working collaboratively across industry and geography
Many event discussions pushed for closer collaboration between the mining companies that operate or are developing projects in Africa – particularly where companies are looking to share assets like processing facilities and infrastructure.
“This approach de-risks investment by lowering the funding requirement for individual mining companies. It also helps to build a stronger business case to present to potential investors,” says Nona. “This trend is not unique to Africa, but reflective of a partnerships-focused approach that mining companies have been moving towards for the past 5 years to drive their costs down, improve efficiency and mitigate risk.”
“A good example is the growing appetite to keep downstream beneficiation and processing in country. While this creates local jobs and generates revenue, the need to establish local facilities can be challenging for the mining companies that operate across multiple jurisdictions,” says Nona. “This discussion seems to grow and evolve as different countries recognise the efficiency gains to be found in working together.”
Future-proofing the talent landscape
Current growth in commodity markets is changing leadership requirements within Government, mining companies, in mining services companies and contracting businesses – conditions that create different leadership opportunities and challenges across the continent.
“Local talent mandates still exist in most jurisdictions, but as projects move towards execution there will be a greater need for experienced international leaders and professionals. These individuals must be capable of driving delivery outcomes as well as upskilling local talent and bringing teams together.” says Paul. “Some exciting leadership roles have also emerged in parts of Africa where mining operations need specialist guidance to meet international standards. For example, Gerard Daniels has recently been interacting with an Australian leader who is helping to drive the growth agenda for a West African based mining contractor.”
“Ultimately, the key to making successful executive appointments in mining lies in the planning,” Paul reflects. “As there will always be demand for experienced senior leaders, we are encouraging our clients to act early, to develop deeper succession plans and recruit for the future – not only in developing and scaling state-of-the-art mining operations but also in building local capability, deeper local talent pipelines and supporting a range of professional and technology partnerships.”
To find out more about Mining Indaba, discuss mining industry trends or new leadership opportunities, connect with Paul and Nona, or reach out to your local Gerard Daniels team.
