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.

Mining the new Zimbabwe
One of the highlights of the day was the presentation by Andrew Cranswick, CEO of Africa Consolidated Resources Plc (ACR) . ACR is a Zimbabwe based Junior Mining house with interests in Gold, Diamonds and Nickel just to name a few. Most of their business is in Zimbabwe. They have spent about £10 million in the last ten years exploring Zimbabwe and developing their portfolio, that is super cheap in the mining industry. Mr. Cranswick was cautiously optimistic about the changing political climate in Zimbabwe ironically marked by MDC leader Morgan Tsvangeri being sworn as Zimbabwe’s second ever Prime Minister (President Robert Mugabe was the last Prime Minister of Zimbabwe). Mr. Cranswick also noted the recent deregulation of the Zimbabwean Gold industry as a really good thing. In the midst of the doom and gloom in the mining world and the prolonged Zimbabwean political and economic crisis, Mr. Cranswick managed to be very upbeat about Zimbabwe.

Resources - Curses or Blessings?
My day ended with a panel discussion titled ‘Resources-Curses or Blessings’. Ervin Niadoo-President & CEO of South African Chamber of Commerce in America, Nok Frick-Consultant & Former Director of South African Council of Geoscience, Walter Russell-Meade, Senior Fellow of US Foreign Policy, Council of Foreign Relations and Kobus van der Wath-Founder and Group Managing Director of Beijing Axis. Each panellist argued various points around the topic with one main theme that the resources in Africa are not a curse as such but need to be better managed. It was a very interesting discussion but not many audience members participated. Some panellist argued for greater government transparency in mineral management, others argued that business should play a more social role to make resources more of a blessing and not a curse and some noted a need for peer review amongst governments when it comes to minerals.I commented at the discussion that without an effective feeling of ownership by all stakeholders especially the majority of people in a resource rich country then not much will change. Governments and businesses have to communicate better with the populace about what resources mean to every citizen. There needs to be better leadership by African governments in resource matters.

One part of the Mining Indaba is that there is a significant presence of African governments at ministerial level. Each country basically promotes its resources to the investor and mining community. Some presentations were simple and straight forward and others were exceptional. The two I enjoyed the most were the Zambian and Ugandan presentations. These countries seem to know what they are doing in terms of effectively mining their mineral wealth. I mention the ministerial part to make my point that clear and effective government leadership is a necessary component is the development of mineral wealth in Africa. I am encouraged by Zambia and Uganda.

Resources are not a curse but a blessing; the curse is what resources inspire in their stakeholders. Africa has a history of greed and corruption in the name of resources translating into wars and exploitation. This is a hallmark of Africa’s colonial legacy but the time has come to start writing a new book on Africa and it’s mineral wealth.

By Simbarashe Mabasha

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