Paydirt says it’s “the world’s largest Australian African business forum.” Africa Down Under (ADU) will be held in Perth next week as higher investor sentiment returns to the arena after a tough five years on equity markets for Australian explorers and miners involved in Africa’s minerals sector.
Western Australia’s Mines and Petroleum Minister, the Hon. Bill Johnston MLA, will open the 1,400 strong delegate conference on Wednesday morning (August 29) at Perth’s Pan Pacific Hotel, with at least 15 African Ministerial presentations over the following days.
Keynote Australian presenters include Resolute Mining’s John Welborn, decorated Australian mining industry veteran, Hugh Morgan, renowned international resources deal maker, Owen Hegarty, and the Head of Global Mining at the Toronto Stock Exchange, Dean McPherson.
The forum is Africa Down Under’s largest turnout since 2013 and will hear from nearly 70 presenters, including at least 35 ASX-listed companies. It boasts a sold-out 90 booth exhibition.
ADU Convenor, Bill Repard says “African aligned ASX-listed companies suffered even more than their Australian-focused peers during the last commodities downturn and even as the rebound took hold domestically, African focused Australian miners and explorers remained less loved by Australia’s domestic equities market.
“Equity market activity in the first half of 2018, points to a reversal of that trend.
“Several African-focused IPOs have landed on the ASX in the past nine months and the region’s established Australian players are enjoying long overdue but renewed market interest.
“Challenges continue on the African continent with a number of countries’ relationship with their mining sectors fraught with conflict. On the upside, however, we have seen the dropping of investment barriers in South Africa, Ghana, Zimbabwe and Angola – factors helping drive the renewed equity market interest.
“Interestingly, Australian-focused mining companies have enjoyed a stellar run over the past few years as commodity prices, led by gold and lithium, continued their upward trend. “However, with many Australian miners reaching record valuation marks, investors are beginning to look offshore for the next opportunity. .
“There is also a severe lack of good exploration ground available in Australia and a chronic shortage of good development and growth stories among the domestically-focused juniors. In contrast, Africa boasts all three in abundance yet the few established ASX-listed gold producers in Africa are undervalued compared to their Australian equivalents.
“At the junior end of the gold sector, explorers are proving West Africa remains one of the world’s hottest exploration destinations, with recent impressive drill results only just beginning to resonate with investors.
“The resounding success in April this year of the significantly oversubscribed A$240 million IPO by Australia’s Jupiter Mines – whose assets include a large operating open-pit manganese mine in South Africa’s northern region – proved the ASX is once again a preferred investor destination for African resources projects.”
Jupiter’s Tshipi Borwa mine is in the Kalahari Manganese Field (KMF) located in the Northern Cape, where some 80% of the world’s known economic manganese resources are to be found.
Tshipi manganese ore is shipped to multiple customers around the world and based on Jupiter’s sales experience has been a highly sought-after product in the market place. The mine exported 3.34 Mt of manganese ore in FY18 and production has been steadily growing over recent years. It has the flexibility to scale production between 3.0 – 3.6 Mt/y.
Jupiter notes that “Tshipi continues to be one of the largest and lowest cost manganese exporters globally. Strong cash margins throughout the cycle and further cost reductions are being targeted.”
