• MINING INDABA
TRUST IS KEY TO MOVING MINING FORWARD IN AFRICA
By Andrew van Zyl, managing director, SRK Consulting( South Africa)
As leaders from across the minerals sector gather in Cape Town in February for the Investing in African Mining Indaba, they will be bringing with them a growing appreciation of the value of trust and collaboration.
The theme of the Cape Town event this year – Stronger Together – should resonate on many levels with delegates, most of whom understand the value of meeting in person and building trust through personal relationships. The theme should also inspire us to think even more deeply about how critical it is for us speak and act with integrity and to build trust through all our engagements.
Trust as a cornerstone There is not much that we, as an industry, can do to counter the rise of misinformation and the mix of private and state actors using various platforms and tools for their own ends. However, we can continue to build trust – among one another and the communities we impact. We should all recognise that our primary defence is speaking and acting with integrity, while minimising the filters between us.
We are ambassadors – for our companies, our countries and our industry; but we can only make a positive difference if we are authentic and in direct contact with our stakeholders. The Indaba presents an opportunity for key stakeholders to meet – including government, mining companies, consulting companies, equipment providers, media, investors and NGOs. The interactions between us can set the tone for the message we take out – but this message must be taken directly to our other stakeholders who are not attending, especially those communities directly impacted by our activities.
Building institutions and codes African mining has grown because we have worked together to become more responsible and transparent, sometimes through necessity but often through voluntary collaboration – such as the development of the mining codes and conferences to share best practices.
Sound relationships with partners in our mining endeavours are the basis of how we build the rules and institutions which underpin our industry. Consider how much Africa’ s mining sector has progressed overall in recent decades in terms of national mining codes and regulations.
Governments and mining companies have interacted to produce the legal‘ bricks’ of the continent’ s economy that make mining an investible enterprise.
These policy innovations do not have the glamour of some of the sector’ s technological achievements and inventions, but they are essential to the advancement of exploration and the establishment of mining operations. We need to remind ourselves how these constructive changes came about, and of the continuous and patient effort of all the stakeholders involved. We also need to encourage participation of all stakeholders in these voluntary forums – balancing the need to facilitate investment with the recognition of the potential negative impacts.
All images supplied by SRK Consulting( South Africa)
Andrew van Zyl, managing director, SRK Consulting( South Africa).
Transforming relationships This kind of progress generally does not begin easily, as all players in the sector have their own interests to advance – and these are not always in alignment. Through enough engagement, however, relationships are built and conversations are conducted. Over time, trust can be cultivated, and that trust – importantly – is based on each player’ s true assessment of the other. It is all about gradually proving your bona fides to others in the mining ecosystem and receiving the same consideration from them.
We have tended to take these things for granted, especially in the days when almost all important engagements were held‘ in person’ – physically rather than remotely using digital communication. This gave us a better sense of who we were dealing with, how they saw the world, what their values were, and how their views compared to our own.
Most importantly, the personal connection gives us the opportunity to find ways through our disagreements. Once the trust is there, it gives more scope to explore a positive route that may be unfamiliar to both parties.
Digital divide Indeed, this issue has become critical to the mining sector – for instance, in terms of mines’ relationships with communities. In the same way that the industry has made momentous strides in finding engineering solutions, we are learning how to effectively engage with communities.
30 • African Mining • January 2026 www. africanmining. co. za