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January 2015
MODERN MINING
29
MINING INDABA
PREVIEW
of substantial investments we have made under
our new ownership,” Jonathan Moore said
recently. “These investments, made at a time
when other events and the overall sector are
contracting, reaffirm our belief that the long
term outlook for African mining is excellent
and our commitment for the Mining Indaba to
remain the premier forum for uniting investors,
mining companies and mining ministers.”
Apart from Tony Blair, prominent speakers
at this year’s Indaba will include Dr Dambisa
Moyo, the Zambian-born author and global
economist, who will speak on the topic of
‘What’s it Going to Take to be Successful in
our Future World.” Moyo’s best-selling books
include
How the West Was Lost: Fifty Years of
Economic Folly – and the Stark Choices Ahead
and, most recently,
Winner Take All: China’s
Race for Resources and What it Means for the
World
. This latter book – which has not been
without its critics – details how China has
embarked on one of the greatest commodity
rushes in history and examines the effects this
is having on the global economy.
Another well-known economist who will
grace the event is Jim O’Neill, currently
Chairman of the Cities Growth Commission
in the UK but perhaps best known for his long
stint (from 1995 to 2013) with Goldman Sachs,
where he was Chief Economist. He is also the
creator of the acronym ‘BRIC’, which he coined
in 2001 as a shorthand way of referring to
Brazil, Russia, India and China, four countries
which he then believed had enough economic
potential to challenge and possibly eventually
overtake the mature economies of the First
World. He will be talking on ‘Managing the
Commodities Curse – What Are the Options?’,
a subject which is bound to attract a full house
when he delivers his keynote address,.
Other speakers with a financial background
who should be worth listening to are Bob
Diamond, the ex-Chief Executive of Barclays
(he departed after the bank was fined for its role
in the LIBOR scandal) who has now founded
Atlas Mara, a company which is busy invest-
ing in Africa’s banking sector, Rob Hersov,
founder (in 2013) of Invest Africa, described
as a “private members club with a multi-ser-
vice platform for access and investment into
Africa”, and Paolo Scaroni, Vice Chairman of
Rothschild (and prior to that CEO of Eni, one
of the world’s major integrated energy compa-
nies). Diamond, Hersov and Scaroni will all be
speaking during a keynote panel session enti-
tled ‘Why Africa? Why Now?”
As always, senior management of many of
the world’s major mining companies will be
presenting at the Mining Indaba. Among those
thus far confirmed as speakers are Alan Davies,
Chief Executive, Diamonds and Minerals, Rio
Tinto, Srinivasan Venkatakrishnan (‘Venkat’),
CEO of AngloGold Ashanti, Mike Schmidt,
CEO of ARM, Brad Gordon, who runs Acacia
Mining (previously African Barrick Gold), Tom
Albanese, CEO of Vedanta (which has recently
announced the go-ahead of its US$782 million
Gamsberg-Skorpion integrated zinc project),
Ben Magara, CEO of Lonmin, Mark Bristow,
Chief Executive of Randgold Resources, and
Graham Briggs, CEO of Harmony Gold.
Executives of some junior to mid-tier compa-
nies who will be present are R. Michael Jones,
President and CEO of Platinum Group Metals,
who will update delegates on the progress at
the company’s Western Bushveld JV (WBJV)
project near Sun City and its Waterberg proj-
ects on the Northern Limb of the Bushveld
Complex, and Clive Johnson, who runs B2Gold
Corporation, which has just commissioned its
new Otjikoto gold mine in Namibia.
Based on past events, probably the standout
speaker from the mining sector will be Robert
Friedland, whose company Ivanhoe Mines has
High profile speakers at
Mining Indaba 2015 will
include (from left) Mark
Bristow of Randgold
Resources, Robert Friedland
of Ivanhoe Mines and Dr
Dambisa Moyo, best-selling
author and economist.
“The 2015 Mining
Indaba features
a number of
substantial
investments
we have made
under our new
ownership.”
Jonathan Moore,
MD, Mining Indaba