South Africa’s Cape Town City is scheduled to host the 32nd annual Investing in African Mining Indaba 2026 from 9–12 February.
Themed “Stronger together: Progress through partnerships”, the conference will take place at Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC).
Investors, mining companies, and government officials will gather for networking and deal-making.
The focus areas include; Sustainable mining, technological advancements, and investment in critical minerals like copper, cobalt, and lithium.
According to organisers, the event will feature panel discussions on topics such as public-private partnerships (PPPs) for mining finance, reflecting the shifting landscape of capital markets and risk management in Africa.
The conference comes at a time of increased appetite for minerals by larger powers especially China, USA and Russia that are aggressively advancing their industries.
Demand for critical minerals—nickel, graphite, manganese, cobalt, copper, lithium, and rare earth minerals—used in defense and aerospace systems, electronic vehicles (EV), semiconductors, artificial intelligence, and medical devices, is surging.
With large shares of reserves in cobalt, coltan, lithium, nickel, manganese, platinum, rare earths, among other minerals, Africa is central to the global rush for critical minerals.
However, Africa remains at the bottom of the value chain and not a prime beneficiary of this mineral wealth.
These are the issues expected to trigger debate during the Indaba 2026 mining conference in Cape Town.
