African Mining Week 2026 opened Wednesday in Cape Town with a call for African countries to move beyond digging up minerals and capture more of their value through cooperation, investment and industrial development.
The opening ceremony took place at the Cape Town International Convention Center. The event runs through Friday under the theme “Mining the Future: Unearthing Africa’s Full Mineral Value.”
What ministers told the opening
Uganda’s Minister of Energy and Mineral Development, Monica Musenero Masanza, said Africa needs to rethink its relationship with its resources and look beyond extraction. Mining, she said, captures only a small share of the total value tied to minerals, so countries must understand and build the wider value chain.
Egypt’s Deputy Minister of Industry, Mohamed Zada, said Africa holds substantial mineral resources but must turn them into broader industrial development. He said the continent holds 30% of global mineral reserves and an estimated $8.6 trillion of underdeveloped mineral resources.
Zada urged closer cooperation among African countries to strengthen their collective position in global mineral markets, and said they must tackle barriers to investment and financing while linking resource projects to downstream industry.
What is on the program
Organizers, Energy Capital and Power, have built the program around a strategic track on policy, investment and infrastructure and a technical track on projects and processing. Sessions include a DRC country spotlight, a discussion on attracting the next billion dollar copper investment and a session on unlocking refining investment.
Separate forums cover gold, national mining companies from countries including Malawi, Kenya and Eswatini, and minerals security. Country and regional spotlights feature Libya, Liberia, Angola, South Sudan and the Central African Republic.
Operators taking part include Gold Fields, Fortuna Mining, KoBold Metals and Makor Resources. Financiers listed by organizers include the Africa Finance Corporation, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, Africa50, the Trade and Development Bank, Standard Bank and Absa.
Why Cape Town, and why now
The event is held alongside African Energy Week, which runs Oct. 12 to 16 in Cape Town. Cape Town also hosts the larger Investing in African Mining Indaba each February, whose 2026 edition was the 32nd.
The timing matters. Critical minerals sit at the center of the energy transition, and several African governments are tightening rules so that more processing happens at home. Zimbabwe, for instance, plans to ban lithium concentrate exports from January 2027.
Ghana is also expected to replace its draft mining bill with a revised version, sources say.
The investment pitch is simple. Africa wants financing for mines, rail, power and refineries, and financiers want clear rules, reliable infrastructure and projects that can pay back.
A roundtable titled The New Resource Contract will examine how to balance sovereignty, nationalism and investor certainty, a tension visible in many recent mining law changes.
African Mining Week is a conference, not a contract. The speeches in Cape Town will count only if they turn into properly financed projects, local processing plants and jobs across the continent. Delegates will have until Friday to start that work in earnest.
