Almost 6,000 delegates from 60 countries and inlcuding 40 government representatives: the Indaba Mining 2011 conference, in Cape Town, South Africa, at the beginning of February, was a good mirror of the changes in Africa’s mining industry.
Thanks to its massive mineral resources, the African continent is becoming the centre of attention as international investors attracted by the potential of new sources of raw material override the usual concerns about political instability and infrastructure issues.
“There is potential but there is risk”, declared Harvard professor Niall Ferguson in his keynote address “The ascent of Africa and her minerals asset”.
“People will have to dig,” he added, pointing out that very little exploration has been conducted until now to assess Africa’s assets.
Over the last years, new investments have been flourishing on the continent, including projects for phosphate, graphite, lithium,...