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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.

“Rome did not burn in a day”
The next presentation was by Dr. Walter Russell Mead, Senior Fellow for US Foreign Policy. He begun like every one else by noting the dire global economic environment. I think it’s like a right of passage for speakers at the Mining Indaba. They all have to say “things are bad!” and then make their presentation. Mr Mead noted that things are bad but he went on to say that “Rome did not burn in a day”. Mr Mead’s presentation was on the Economic Crisis and Natural Resources. He did a good job in noting how we got into the madness that is the global financial crisis but he did however balance that out by saying that it will take a monumental crisis to destroy the global financial system or Rome. Yes it may need to be restructured but it was not completely falling apart. I liked this speech because it was frank but not alarmist. He was straightforward; he went as far as saying that it was stupid bankers that got us into this crisis. I’m sure that did not go down well with some of the bankers at the Indaba. Basically I interpreted his view to be things are bad but the sky is not falling.

Africa-The Pick N Pay Hyper Mineral Mart?
Most of the day was dominated by presentations by mining houses like Anglo-American, Rio Tinto, De Beers, AngloGold Ashanti, New Mont, Gold Fields, Rand Gold and Harmony Gold. Kuseni Dlamini’s (Head of Anglo American), presentation was mostly about how he was very optimistic about Africa going forward. He was not afraid to be positive in very negative times. The gold miners were not as optimistic but they indirectly reiterated that Africa is a good place to mine. Most of the presentations were by the various Chief Executives or senior executives representing the mining houses. Each executive had a particular theme about their business. For example AngloGold Ashanti noted its safety improvements, Gold fields was mostly business and De Beers reminded us that Diamonds are Forever. I felt like an analyst listening about the various businesses and trying to digest the graphs. I did however learn a lot about the mining houses.

My biggest lesson was that Africa has about a billion people but has one third of the world’s mineral resources. What fascinated me the most was that Africa is like Pick N Pay Hyper or Makro for minerals. It is like a huge wholesaler of resources. Depending on where you stand this could be a gift or a curse. I’m inclined to think it’s a bit of both and that sucks. We have the resources but many have died or been displaced in the pursuit of resources. Some African countries don’t get the benefits of the resource gift thus making it a curse. In some respects it’s a sad state of affairs but and this is a big BUT the mining houses seem to be very aware of the past and how that affected Africa and they are trying to be equitable and that is encouraging.

By Simbarashe Mabasha

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