Report on 15th Annual African Mining Breakfast & Investing in African Mining Seminar - Mar 4, 2014

March 20, 2014 - The biggest African mining event in North America certainly lived up to its billing on March 4 during PDAC in Toronto and all at the Chamber have good reason to be proud.  Apart from the overwhelmingly positive feedback we have received the clearest message of the success of the event is that our Premier Sponsor, SGS, renewed their sponsorship for 2015 on the spot!

The Chamber’s 15^th Annual African Mining Breakfast and MineAfrica’s 12^th Investing in African Mining Seminar on March 4 drew a capacity crowd.  The sold-out breakfast featured an opening address by The Right Honorable Dr Hage Gottfried Geingob, Prime Minister, Republic of Namibia and a keynote address by Clive Johnson, President & Chief Executive Officer, B2Gold Corp.  African delegations in attendance included Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Kenya, Namibia, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Tanzania.

Following breakfast, eighteen mining companies, African Mining Ministers and expert advisors to the mining industry delivered concise presentations covering African mining projects, investment opportunities and doing business in Africa's mining industry, in three concurrent seminar rooms.

Download the March 4 program and corporate profiles.  You can download all of the presentations at the end of this email.

We are indebted to our Premier Sponsor SGS, Corporate Sponsors Eco (Atlantic) Oil & Gas and Fasken Martineau and sponsors B2Gold, DRA Global, Falcon Drilling Burkina Faso SARL, Juch-Tech Inc., MineAfrica, Mining IQ, Mintek, the Mineral Resource Analyst Group (MRAG), SatADSL and TMX Group (Toronto Stock Exchange and TSX Venture Exchange), for their support.  Thank you!

Thank you to seminar moderators Charlotte Dilks, Eco (Atlantic) Oil & Gas, Daye Kaba (Fasken Martineau) and Peet Visagie (SGS), our Student Associates, volunteers from AIESEC and the Schulich School of Business and all of those that helped make our participation at the PDAC a success.

It was a busy week for African mining and the Chamber. We were pleased to kick the week off by being a partner with MineAfrica in presenting a compelling, interactive, panel discussion on Managing the Risks of Investing in African Mining on Sunday morning where participants learned from senior partners of leading African law firm, and Premier Sponsor, Webber Wentzel and South Africa's Minister of Mineral Resources, Susan Shabangu, about pan-African resource nationalism, structuring financial investments in Africa, risk mitigation through stakeholder democracy and the African Mining Vision.

Download the March 2 program and panelist profiles.

This year the Chamber also had a presence at the sold-out PDAC Trade Show with a complimentary quarter booth in the MineAfrica pavilion.  Thank you MineAfrica.

The week’s events wrapped up with The African Market Open at Toronto Stock Exchange on March 5.  In recognition of the importance of Africa as a mining investment destination the Toronto Stock Exchange invited our African delegates at PDAC to open the market on Wednesday March 5 and were welcomed by TSX President Kevan Cowan and Senior Vice President Ungad Chadda. Watch the 30 second video of the African Market Open at Toronto Stock Exchange.

Be sure to scroll through the photo gallery (where you may see a picture of yourself).