Lindelwa Nonjaduka is a graduate of the MPhil in Development Finance at Stellenbosch Business School and Founding Director of The Equilibrium Institute.
As the global community of mining industry leaders, investors, innovators and policymakers from across the global prepare for the upcoming 2026 Mining Indaba to be held from 9th - 12th February 2026, the test will be whether Africa can leverage the Mining Indaba to translate its resource abundance into industrial power.
Following from the common themes emanated at the South Africa's G20 Presidency and the African Union Week in 2025, Africa's rich minerals are urgently needed worldwide yet the continent remains poor in the value derived from them.
Equally, the common feature of the 2026 Mining Indaba centers on Africa's rich minerals and the need for collaboration and partnerships between the private sector and government for a sustainable mining sector in Africa. Year in, year out, billions of investments in pledges are announced at each Mining Indaba, but Africa remains the main exporter of its raw minerals. Therefore, where are we missing the point?
We're missing the point in not understanding that the problem is not a shortage of investments in Africa's mining sector, but the design of investment itself.
The investment model in Africa's mining sector remains embedded on low value extraction and export efficiency. By design, mining projects are financed through foreign investments that require rapid capital recovery, thrive in environments with low regulatory barriers, and prioritise logistics corridors over industrial parks, and favour investor confidence and protection while shifting development costs such as infrastructure development to the government of the host country. This results in a mining sector that is integrated globally but structurally misaligned to the continent's long term development goals.
The Mining Indaba is not positioned to fix these structural problems. It is structured, by design and purpose, to match mining opportunities in Africa to investments, showcases innovation and new technologies that advance extraction and improve export efficiency. It prioritises returns on foreign capital over national development outcomes. Its success is measured by investment activity, policy signaling and reforms aimed at protecting investor confidence and foreign capital and not by the development outcomes as it is not a development planning forum.
Against the backdrop of infrastructure challenges, Africa's ability to transform its mineral wealth into industrial power rests with, among other things, the political will of its leadership and meaningful collaboration with the private sector to renegotiate the legacy bilateral investment treaties in Africa's mining sector to incorporate binding clauses on sustainability, structural formation and beneficiation. The renegotiations are crucial in avoiding legal threats that may ensue when introducing policy reforms aimed at promoting a sustainable mining sector. Some of the African countries that have faced such threats in the past include Tanzania, Mali, and The Democratic Republic of Congo.
African leaders also need to present a united front and speak with one voice when negotiating with private capital at the Mining Indaba. Engaging in bilateral negotiations as individual countries to secure mining deals weakens the leverage the continent has over its reach minerals and renders the Africa Mining Vision a far-fetched dream.
Following on this year's theme "Stronger Together: Progress through Partnership", the 2026 Mining Indaba must decide whether it will remain a marketplace networking event for extraction of Africa's rich mineral or really live up to its theme by contributing to the realisation of Africa Mining Vision which advocates for value add and local beneficiation in Africa's mining sector.