Top industry speakers expected at Electra Mining conference
Staff Writer | Thursday August 27, 2015 16:21
According to the organisers of the conference, 127 local and international exhibitors from the mining, industrial and power generation industries will showcase their latest innovations, products, services and technologies.
Onthusitse Harold Melaetsa, chief minerals officer at the Botswana Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources, will share his outlook for the Botswana minerals market, including driving economic diversification, overcoming challenges and looking at new opportunities. Melaetse will offer insight and views around development for 2015 through to 2018, mineral development as a vehicle of economic diversification, key challenges facing the future development of Botswana’s mineral industry and the outlook for domestic and export demand.
The role of private investors in power infrastructure and setting up an attractive environment for Botswana to become a power hub, will be one of the discussion points in the presentation given by Neeraj Saxena, project manager at Power Jindal Botswana. Saxena will discuss bridging the energy capacity through Botswana power sector development, looking at the electricity demand forecast for 2015 to 2020 and exploring the current outlook for Botswana and whether Botswana can cater for Southern Africa’s appetite for power.
Chief Executive Officer of the Walvis Bay Corridor Group, Johny Smith will speak about working towards infrastructure synergy across the SADC region. He will touch on the progress and future prospects of establishing connectivity through Botswana and Namibia as well as establishing a progressive regulatory environment to enable synergy across borders and harmonising Southern Africa’s corridor networks.
Developing community engagement will be the focus of a presentation by Charles Siwawa, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Botswana Chamber of Mines. Siwawa will discuss the role of developing training centres for improving technical capacity and investing in human capital, how to synergise the national upliftment strategy by navigating the complexities between all stakeholders and the forming of alliances with communities and the mining industry. He will also cover aspects of effective generation of income transforming natural resources and localising business and developing the right skills and culture.
Other speakers include Neil Fitt of the Transport Hub, Ministry of Transport and Communications; Dr. Andre Nel, OHS Group Manager, Group Strategic Services Liberty; Mark McKee, Partner at Armstrongs Attorneys; Tobias Cossen, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) among others.
The managing director at Specialised Exhibitions Montgomery, Gary Corin said organisers of the show have partnered with Soapbox Communications, a local company.
“Visitors to Electra Mining Botswana will engage with over 120 local and international exhibitors and experience live demonstrations of products and equipment whilst also benefiting from the free to attend seminars,” he said.
Other exhibitors include Filtration Africa, Air Liquide Botswana, AC/DC Dynamics, Multotec and Verder Pumps, among many others.
SoapBox Communications director, Vuyiswa Mojela added that they are delighted to announce that Vincent T. Seretse, the Minister of Trade and Industry and Kitso Mokaila, the Minister of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources, are also expected to be in attendance.
“As an international mining, industrial, power generation and machine tools event we have received excellent support from the Botswana Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources and from the Botswana Chamber of Mines, both of whom fully endorse the show,” he said.