Modern Mining February 2018

EVENTS

Zimbabwean mining (notably with platinum producer Mimosa and Hwange Colliery) and who has served as the President of the coun- try’s Chamber of Mines, addressed the ‘Mining in Zimbabwe Dialogue’, one of the events held alongside the Mining Indaba. He made the point that the country was under explored and that its mineral endowment was under exploited. He also emphasised that the new administration had eased the onerous ‘indi- genisation’ requirements introduced when Robert Mugabe was in power. His message was that ‘Zimbabwe is open for business’ and he left his audience in little doubt that new inves- tors in the country’s mining sector would be welcomed with open arms. Although the Mining Indaba is not normally associated with new equipment launches, JSE- listed Master Drilling – as has now become customary for it – used the event as a platform to introduce new technology, its focus this year being its new ‘disruptive’ Mobile Tunnel Boring (MTB) solution. The company believes the MTB will make it possible for some mar- ginal projects to pass feasibility hurdles due to the cost- and time-saving it can deliver. According to the company, the MTB can bore out an excavation of 4,5 m and/or 5,5 m in diameter at a rate that far exceeds conven- tional tunnel excavation methods. The system, which is able to tunnel in hard rock with com- pressive strengths of over 300 MPa, has been developed in partnership with Italy’s Seli Technologies and will be deployed through a newly established and dedicated division, Master Tunnelling. Finally, and summing up, the Mining

Indaba was, as always, well organised with an impressive array of presentations, round-table discussions, workshops and the like all running concurrently over the four days of the event. Although the final attendance figures have yet to be released, Modern Mining ’s impression was that the number of delegates was some- what down. The ‘quality’ of delegates, however, has apparently improved with – according to the organisers – a 26 % increase in mining company attendance, a 23 % increase in the number of delegates classified as investors and more African government representation than at previous events. The event has its chal- lenges – among other things, competition from the 121 Mining Investment conference which runs in Cape Town at the same time – but it cer- tainly did enough this year to retain its status as Africa’s leading mining convention. Report by Arthur Tassell, photos courtesy of 2018 Investing in African Mining Indaba (Dave Hann Photography)

One of the many panel discussions held as part of the Mining Indaba.

February 2018  MODERN MINING  33