Mining Indaba had made the "difficult decision" in October to cancel the in-person annual event for 2021, citing continuing uncertainty caused by COVID-19 and following discussions with its partners and key stakeholders in the industry.

It has since announced the free Mining Indaba Virtual, to be held on February 2-3, with speakers including Anglo American CEO Mark Cutifani and the presidents of Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"We are delighted to be able to partner with Mining Indaba to keep investing in African mining on the global agenda," the mineral council's senior executive public affairs and transformation Tebello Chabana said yesterday.

Mining Indaba is planning for the in-person event to return on February 7-10 in 2022.

Mineworker COVID-19 deaths reach 200

Meanwhile the number of COVID-19 deaths among mineworkers in South Africa has this week reached 200, according to the latest figures from the minerals council.

The most deaths were recorded in the North West province, with 66.

The council figures showed 377,852 of the industry's 474,455 employees had been screened, 66,001 had been tested for COVID-19 and of the 19,547 positive cases, 298 remained active.

South Africa has recorded 930,711 cases and 24,907 deaths from COVID-19, according to today's data from Johns Hopkins University.

The figures put the country 18th in terms of the number of cases, behind Ukraine and Peru which both have almost 1 million. The US tops the list with more than 18 million cases and 319,000 deaths.