Day 4
The Mining Day officially ended today but the deal making and networking will not end today. I spent more time doing some networking of my own in the Exhibitors Hall and I was collecting business cards like the bonus round of Super Mario Land on Nintendo. Remember that? The atmosphere at the Exhibitors Hall was good, people were still talking business, I even saw some contracts being signed at the Canadian stand. However, some people seemed tired and I can understand that. It’s been a long week and somewhat taxing as the mood was sombre at best. I can safely report that the Mining Indaba was a success even in the current “Things are bad” space.

My highlight of the week has to be the China story. So I would like to dedicate what maybe my final piece on the Mining Indaba 2009 to China and what it means to the world and to Africa.
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Day 3
Today was an interesting day at the Mining Indaba. It was a reasonable start time-9am. What I found interesting was the subject matter tackled today. It ranged from a presentation by Portfolio Manager for US Global Investors Inc, Mr Ralph Aldis who spoke on the Infrastructure Boom and the Indaba, things are bad in the world and commodities are suffering too. The rest of the day was dominated by junior miners and explorers. This was also interesting as I learnt that most junior players are explorers who get mining concessions, research them up to feasibility phase and then try to sell them to those that will mine the ore. There are many junior mining houses that don’t actually mine the ore but there are those that do. I hung out at the Exhibitors Hall at the Indaba and that was also interesting. This is the deal making parlour. I’m sure you’ve been to a department store and they have the make-up stalls and all the women get free make-up and everyone is super happy. The Exhibitors Hall is something like that; everyone is selling something with their make-up of brochures, company information and freebies. Some stalls went as far as having a cocktail party with free food and drinks in the Exhibitors Hall. One thing the Australians know how to do is to through a party. The Australia Lounge was a really good place to a get a feel for the industry and get free food and beer too. I spoke to some juniors miners and they were of the view that the vibe was not as jovial as last year. The freebies could not change the sober mood at the Indaba. Things are truly bad in the Mining Industry.
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Open for Business
Day 2 of Mining Indaba and I had to be there at 750am, are you freaking kidding me! I made it on time but I was tired. The day begun with a speech by the Honourable Minister Buyelwa Sonjica- Minister of Minerals & Energy and she gave a general overview of the operating environment in South Africa from the government’s perspective. She also noted that things are bad but she counted that sentiment with some facts about what the government is doing in terms of infrastructure development, with particular emphasis on Eskom. She also noted the Mining Charter Review process. The minister gave a good account of the government’s work in the mining and energy space and that was encouraging.
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First Impressions
Well today was my first time at the Mining Indaba and well it was a blast. The day begun slowly, there were some problems with the registration time and some people were not impressed. I was not impressed too as I woke up really early and I had to wait close to an hour to register. So it was not looking good at about 9am. The registration process when it begun was simple enough, so that was good. After registration the delegates had to wait until 1:15pm as that was the official start time for the Mining Indaba.

Let the Indaba beginAt this point I was really excited, I got my free conference swag (slang for free corporate gifts), I read the schedule and I was ready to start indaba-ring. Let me point out that I have a history in commodity trading and so I had a general understanding of the industry or so I thought. The conference schedule kicked off with a Commodity Outlook and Review series of speeches. The lead off speaker was Timothy Wood, Vice-President of International Investment Conference (the organising company for the Mining Indaba). Mr Wood gave a brief overview of the Mining Indaba. This was a great way to start as I didn’t know much about the Mining Indaba. Some quick facts about Indaba, last year there were about 5000 delegates, this year there will be about 4000 delegates, with a 25% decline in attendance. The layout of the venue has been improved with better peer-to-peer networking systems. The networking aspect of the Indaba is the most important aspect of the Indaba. I definitely noticed that at the welcome cocktail party, people were networking, I even got involved, I was a NETWORKER. SWEET!
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A huge relief has come to South Africans. South Africa’s central bank has cut its key repo rate by 100 basis points to 10.5 percent today (Thursday), as expected, and hinted there may be more cuts to come. For many it was not a question if rates would be cut or not but just a matter of by how much will they be cut. Suggestions ranged from 50 basis points to 200 basis points, but it looks like the MPC (Monetary Policy Committee) has settled on 100 basis points for now. However, Reserve Bank Governor, Tito Mboweni said today that he personally wanted a 200 basis point cut in interest rates but the MPC agreed on 100 only. This could easily mean that we will see another 100 basis point cut in April when the MPC meets again.

The full percentage fall, the biggest single adjustment in more than five years, adds to December’s 50 basis point cut that started unwinding the 5 percentage points in hikes between June 2006 and June 2008.