Roundup of The London Indaba 2024

Anglo American was proud, once again, to be a Mining Industry Partner at the second iteration of The London Indaba that took place on 25 and 26 June 2024 in London. The theme for this year’s event was ‘Africa’s critical role in the minerals and metals of the future’.

Key stakeholders from across the mining industry, as well as representatives from government, finance and the media, came together to engage in a wide variety of subjects concerning the critical role Africa plays in providing many of the minerals and metals the world needs for the future.

Speaking at the event from Anglo American were Paul Gait, Group Head of Strategy, and Craig Miller, CEO of our PGMs business, Anglo American Platinum.

On the first day, Paul took part in a panel discussion alongside Tim Gould (Chief Economist of the International Energy Agency) and Jeff Townsend (Founder of the Critical Minerals Association). The panel was chaired by Henk de Hoop (CEO of SFA Oxford) and the theme of the discussion was ‘Geopolitics, conflict and shifting alliances impacting the outlook for the global supply and demand of critical minerals and metals’.

On the question of how mining companies can continue to compete for assets in an increasingly complex geopolitical environment, Paul highlighted the importance of embedding the full breadth of sustainability considerations into the design, development and operation of projects that meet the expectations of shareholders, stakeholders and society.

“There's a whole host of community, sustainability, social, and also technical factors that come to bear in the development of these sort of assets, not just the ability to provide capital. You have to be able to provide something that is of long term benefit not only to investors, but also to local communities and host governments. That's why Anglo American’s strategy has, for a very long time, emphasised its social and sustainability credentials.”

Commenting on the future demand for critical minerals and metals – particularly copper – and the expectation that over two billion people will be added to the world population before the end of the century, Paul said:

“This is two billion people who will have expectations of a higher standard of living. It takes 250 kilograms of copper to create the kind of standard of living that we have in the Western world today. Two billion people times 250 kilograms equates to 500 million tonnes of copper. That's roughly 25 years of the output of the entire industry today. So, the pressure, the expectation, the need is absolutely categorical.”

To meet this demand, Paul stressed that increased collaboration and cooperation will be required between stakeholders inside and outside of the mining industry going forward: “We are going to need partnerships, we are going to need collaboration, and we are going to need co-operation in terms of developing these assets.”

On the second day of the conference, Craig Miller presented his Keynote Session on ‘The role of PGMs in a sustainable future’. In his address, Craig emphasised the many reasons why PGMs will be critical to enabling a “cleaner, greener and healthier tomorrow”.

“The PGMs we produce, play an essential role in everyday life. Whether that is in helping to reduce the emissions from motor vehicle tailpipes, to applications in healthcare products or equipment, to smartphones and wind turbines.”

Craig also highlighted some of the many exciting projects in development in the PGMs space, including Anglo American’s H2 Moves Europe initiative, which in partnership with Hype, has launched new hydrogen taxi fleets in Paris and Brussels and is the official taxi supporter of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.