Mining Indaba for Young Professionals

Shaping the future of Africa

At Mining Indaba 2027, the Young Professionals programme empowers emerging mining leaders through collaboration, mentorship, and meaningful connections between industry, young professionals, entrepreneurs, and higher education institutions. Together, these partnerships provide the skills, knowledge, and opportunities needed to drive innovation and shape the future of mining.

Aligned with the theme "Stronger Together: Partnership in Practice," the Young Professionals programme demonstrates how collaboration can build a more inclusive, sustainable, and resilient mining sector by investing in the talent that will lead Africa's mining industry into the future.

The Mining Indaba Influencer Programme is designed to elevate the next generation of mining leaders and ensure young professionals have a meaningful voice in shaping the industry's future.

Young people are not just the future of mining. They are actively influencing how the sector evolves through technology, new skills, sustainability, innovation and fresh thinking. As the industry continues to transform, their perspectives are essential to building a more resilient, inclusive, and competitive mining sector.

Anchored in the Mining Indaba 2027 theme, Stronger Together: Partnerships in Practice, the programme demonstrates how collaboration between experienced leaders and emerging professionals creates stronger outcomes for the industry. By bringing together diverse perspectives across mining, government, academia and innovation, it reflects the partnerships needed to drive meaningful progress.

The programme forms part of Mining Indaba's Young Professionals platform, creating opportunities for emerging leaders to share their expertise, build their professional profile and contribute to industry conversations that influence Africa's mining future.

The MI27 Influencers represent a diverse community of engineers, geologists, ESG practitioners, entrepreneurs, researchers, digital innovators and mining professionals. Through thought leadership and authentic storytelling, they bring practical perspectives from across the mining value chain while highlighting the innovations, partnerships and people driving meaningful change.

The future of mining will be built by those prepared to think differently, collaborate openly and lead with purpose. The MI27 Influencer Programme exists to ensure those voices are part of the conversation and part of the decisions shaping the industry's future.

Meet the Minds Shaping Mining Indaba 2027

The future of mining will not be built by one generation, one company, or one stakeholder group. It will be built through partnerships that bring together experience, innovation, diverse perspectives, and shared ambition. 'Stronger Together: Partnerships in Practice' reminds us that collaboration is no longer optional. It is a strategic necessity. The industry's most pressing challenges, from sustainability and inclusion to skills development and innovation, require collective action. The organisations that thrive will be those willing to listen, co create solutions, and invest in people as much as they invest in projects.

Akhona Pretty Shongwe

Head of Marketing & Sponsorships | Mentor | Tutor, Women in Mining Podcast (The Miner Group) | Edukasi NPO Tutor | Success Hub Tutoring

As the next generation of mining professionals, we are inheriting an industry facing both immense opportunity and significant challenges. Stronger Together: Partnerships in Practice means recognising that progress is not driven by individual success, but by collective effort. The future belongs to industries that collaborate, innovate, and invest in people. By working together, we can build a mining sector that is more inclusive, more sustainable, and better positioned to create opportunities for future generations.

Asiphe Nhleko

Mining Intern | Mining Engineering Student, Lesego Platinum | University of the Witwatersrand

Mining cannot afford to operate in silos any longer. The industry's greatest challenge is not a lack of resources. It is a lack of alignment. Real progress happens when companies, governments, communities, and young innovators share ownership of both the opportunities and the outcomes. Partnerships in practice mean moving beyond consultation towards genuine collaboration. If Africa's mineral wealth is to translate into long term prosperity, we must invest as aggressively in skills, technology, and communities as we do in extraction. The future of mining will belong to those willing to build together, not compete alone.

Ntombikayise Mlambo

Mining Engineer, Harmony Gold

'Stronger Together: Partnerships in Practice' is a challenge to every stakeholder in the mining ecosystem. The real question is not whether collaboration is important. It is whether we are prepared to be accountable for its outcomes. Africa's mining future will not be determined by conference resolutions or policy declarations alone. It will be shaped by the quality of partnerships that can unlock investment, accelerate infrastructure delivery, create jobs, and generate shared value. The countries and organisations that succeed will be those that move fastest from intention to implementation and from dialogue to measurable impact.

Olwethu Pityana-Matji

Non-Executive Director, Phindile Merchant Investment

People build successful mines, but the true measure of success is whether those mines create lasting value beyond their operations. Mining cannot thrive where communities are left behind. The future of the industry depends on partnerships that connect economic growth with community development, ensuring that mining creates opportunity, prosperity, and shared progress for generations to come. Successful mines build thriving communities, and thriving communities sustain successful mines.

Sephela Makete Thema

Head of Operations, West Wits Mining