Day 1 impressions from Mining Indaba 2026

Research Associate and Mining Engineer Mehrnoosh Heydari and Research Assistant Gretel Cuevas Verdin are attending Mining Indaba in Cape Town, 9th-12th February 2026. Here are some insights from day 1 of the conference.

For Mehrnoosh, day 1 landed with a clear message: the mining conversation has shifted from what needs to change to how we actually make it work.

A few themes kept coming up across sessions:

🔹 Traceability isn’t a side project anymore.
There’s growing recognition that traceability needs to work for all producers – including ASM (Artisanal- and Small-Scale Mining) and that national mineral platforms (like those emerging in Zambia, Chile and Indonesia) may become core infrastructure, not just compliance tools.

🔹 Interoperability is the real bottleneck.
No single system will ever cover the full value chain. The fragmentation of platforms and data standards is now one of the biggest barriers to scale. Shared architecture, identifiers and protocols aren’t “nice to have” – they’re becoming the enablers of any credible due diligence and transparency effort.

🔹 Technology is ready. Adoption is the hard part.
Most agree that electrification, automation and digitalisation can drive decarbonisation and productivity. The challenge isn’t the tech itself – it’s integration, skills, and aligning incentives across the ecosystem.

What stood out most is that sustainability, transparency and competitiveness are no longer separate tracks. They’re becoming one agenda – and it will only move at the speed of collaboration between governments, industry, financiers and solution providers.

Photo credits: Mehrnoosh Heydari.