Mining Indaba’s 25th instalment was an event of many firsts, and the organisers believe they delivered the biggest and best version of the event to its delegates.
For starters, the Mining Indaba of 2019 had 6 000 delegates, more than any other event in Mining Indaba’s history.
It also became the first Mining Indaba to be formally addressed by a sitting president of South Africa, when President Cyril Ramaphosa took to the podium on Tuesday afternoon to speak to delegates.
Since London-based corporate events giant ITE Group bought Mining Indaba from EuroMoney last year, Mining Indaba has been focused on rebranding itself from a meeting place for panel discussions and monologues, to a networking hived aimed at closing deals.
Mining Indaba’s head of investor relations, Kael O’Sullivan, told Fin24 the 2019 event exceeded organisers’ expectations.
‘Easily the best’
“The event has been going for 25 years and, while I’ve only been involved for a few of those, this is easily the best one that I have ever been to,” said O’Sullivan.
Aside from the quality of speeches, seminars and discussions, O’Sullivan said the Mining Indaba provided a platform specifically aimed at the junior mining sector.
Battery metal shake-up
“The event had serendipitous content and meetings. We also looked at topics that mining investors are thinking about, like regulation, tax, diversity and nationalism.
“We had automotive companies buy up stalls for the first time ever, because of how battery metals have shaken up the sector,” O’Sullivan said.
Mining Indaba’s head of marketing, Joanna Kotyrba, told Fin24 that the event presented organisers with an opportunity to pilot new ideas and build on them for future events.
“The main challenge right now is to figure out how to top this next year. We also want to increase participation for government and for investors. There is nothing we would change that we did this time around,” said Kotyrba.