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Mining companies can play a key role in harnessing Africa’s abundant clean sources of energy to overcome the lack of electricity which affects at least one in three Africans, according to an ESMAP-supported World Bank report released at the Mining Indaba in Cape Town, South Africa, on February 9. 

The report - “Power of the Mine: A Transformative Opportunity for Sub-Saharan Africa” - calls on the mining industry to work more closely with electricity utilities in the region to meet their growing energy demands. Rather than supplying their own energy on site, mines can become major and reliable customers for electricity utilities or independent power producers (IPPs) which can then grow and develop better infrastructure to bring low-cost power to communities.

Sub-Saharan Africa, as a region, only generates 80 gigawatts of power each year for 48 countries and a population of 1.1 billion people. Two-thirds of people in the region live entirely without electricity and those with a power connection, suffer constant disruptions in supply.  Without new investment and with current rates of population growth, there will be more Africans without power by 2030 than there are now.

Read the press release  | Read the feature story  |  Download the report