27.02.2013 / ICMM at African Mining Indaba
ICMM, in partnership with African Mining Indaba, hosted the sustainable development session for the third year running at the biggest mining conference in Africa. Mark Cutifani, AngloGold Ashanti CEO, opened proceedings with his keynote address on mining's contribution to sustainable development.
Cutifani examined the importance of mining to the global economy, whilst acknowledging the challenge of ensuring its contribution to development is maximized. He also called for all stakeholders – including industry and governments – to “acknowledge their differences and work together to change South Africa for good”. This was followed by an interactive panel discussion on mining’s economic contribution to sustainable development featuring Joyce Aryee (Communications and Management Consultant), Roger Baxter (Chamber of Mines of South Africa), Rafael Benke (Vale), Philip Daniel (International Monetary Fund) and May Hermanus (University of the Witwatersrand).
ICMM’s second panel focused on the global challenge of revenue transparency and anti-corruption and included Roosevelt Jayjay (Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative), Emmanuel Kuyole (Revenue Watch Institute), Xolani Mkhwanazi (BHP Billiton) and Greg Thompson (Transparency International, Australia). The discussions explored issues such as the need for improvement in skills development, infrastructure and social investment in local communities and the progression from transparency into accountability. While recognizing the progress that has been made, the panelists called for multi-stakeholder collaboration to tackle the serious challenges the industry still faces.
For those who were not able to attend, ICMM will post the video of the sessions, as well as the written remarks from a number of the speakers, on the ICMM website in the near future.
