Comment
Africa needs
homegrown
exploration
companies
Get in touch
@LeonLouw3
[email protected]
I
t is encouraging to see that the Cape Town
Mining Indaba is going back to its roots;
to the place where dealmaking in the
African mining industry happens. The mining
fraternity will continue flocking to Cape
Town if Indaba remains a networking and
dealmaking platform (even if some deals are
done in hotel lobbies and not at the Cape
Town Convention Centre). For me, the most
exciting feature of this year’s Indaba is the fact
that the event organisers are expecting about
160 junior mining companies to attend and
pitch their projects to potential investors.
My question is, how many of these junior
mining companies are African? Canadian
and Australian geologists and junior mining
companies are incentivised to undertake
exploration expeditions across the globe,
which explains their large presence in
Africa. And that is fantastic — it exposes
Africans to a range of skills; African
countries need the exposure and, should
the projects develop further, the foreign
investment. But where are the African
geologists, entrepreneurs, and junior miners?
Africa has some of the world’s best
geologists, mining engineers, and
entrepreneurs. Why are they not venturing
into other parts of Africa? Why are the
Ghanaian or Botswana geologists not
exploring in the DRC and Mali? Or why
are they not establishing their own junior
mining companies in South Africa, for
that matter? Moreover, why are the junior
mining companies that are based in South
Africa not exploring in the rest of Africa?
And I am not talking about building a
mine or operating an existing mine. I am
talking about doing the actual groundwork
— early exploration work — the kind of
work that Mark Bristow and his geologists
at Randgold have done in West Africa.
Why do African countries have to wait
for the Canadians, Australians, Indians, or
Chinese to do risk assessments and country
profiles, and figure out the logistics, while
Africa has its own exceptional talent?
Besides, it is much easier for Africans
to work in other African countries.
Nigeria, for example, is trying to diversify
its economy, and mining is pivotal in that
diversification drive. But mining is new to
Nigerians. When I visited the country last
year and spoke to some exploration licence
holders, it became clear that they lack
sufficient geological experience. They have a
thirst for knowledge, and would welcome any
geologist or exploration company with open
arms, more so if they are fellow-Africans.
As a South African, I often wonder
why South African geologists and junior
mining companies (and there are many)
never look further than Limpopo; or, if
they do, they join a Canadian or Australian
outfit. Wouldn’t it be great to see a
Namibian exploration company in Nigeria,
or Tanzanian junior miners working the
graphite deposits in Uganda? Or how about
a Dangote team of geologists looking for the
next big lithium deposit in Mozambique?
What Africa needs is a fund to finance
such undertakings. In contrast to Australia
and Canada, African governments provide
no assistance or incentives to their own
exploration companies, which restricts
their movement across the continent. What
would really make my day is if, one day, I
could write that Mining Indaba expects
over 300 junior exploration companies,
and more than 200 of those are African.
Leon
Editor
FEBRUARY 2018 MINING MIRROR
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