Reporter's Notebook - Inside Africa's mining 'speed dating' event

• African resources draw buyers hungry for critical minerals
• Activists met at alternative human rights Indaba
• Calls for mining transparency, accountability

CAPE TOWN - I was not expecting the African Mining Indaba conference to feel like a mass speed dating show that helps mining companies find a mineral match made in heaven.

The 31st Indaba held in Cape Town connects some 11,000 delegates under the expansive roof of the impressive Cape Town International Conference Centre.

Attendees swarmed last week between talks, meetings and coffee stations like a collective, hungry hive.

Weeks before the event, delegates were invited to use the Indaba app. Oddly reminiscent of a dating app, users could "show interest" in others, hope for a match, and set up a precious 25-minute slot to connect in the meeting room.

At the end of the allocated slot a bell was rung and delegates were encouraged to keep playing the field.

Governments and companies paid dearly for a spot in the event's exhibition hall, where they peacocked their offerings, armed with pamphlets, free pens and neon lights. One exhibitor said his company paid $25,000 to have a booth at the conference but organisers declined to comment on the price.

A veteran geologist told me that the Democratic Republic of Congo stand used to receive few visitors more than a decade ago.

Now delegates queued and hovered around the country's stand like anxious teenage boys hoping to get a dance at the disco.

The reason: critical minerals.

Minerals like lithium, coltan and cobalt are vital for new green industries like electric vehicles, solar panels and wind turbines. A global race has developed to secure them.

Experts estimate that Africa accounts for around 40% of the world's critical mineral reserves. Some 70% of the world's cobalt needed for batteries in mobile phones, laptops and electric vehicles is found in the DRC, according to the Institute for Security Studies think tank.

The night before the conference, U.S. President Donald Trump had announced that funding would be withheld from South Africa until an investigation was done into its new land expropriation bill.

While rumour had it that South African President Cyril Ramaphosa had ghosted his Indaba date to put out Trump fires, Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe was the image of nonchalance in his place.

Speaking at the Indaba opening ceremony, he said the minerals beneath South Africa's soil gave his country an upper hand.

"If they don't give us money, let's not give them minerals," Mantashe said to a swooning crowd.

Less courtship, more consent

Of course, the Indaba was not just a corporate mining love affair. There were also meet-ups, panels and exhibition stands featuring civil society organisations, renewable energy companies and researchers.

But some attendees chose to find love elsewhere.

A 20-minute walk from the fame and fortune of the convention centre, hundreds of activists and community members impacted by mining projects met at a church to attend the Alternative Mining Indaba (AMI) opening ceremony.

The conversation was less about courtship and more about consent.

Researchers, activists and community members were anxious that the rush for Africa's critical or transition minerals would bring with it a new wave of extractive mining that would, once more, leave the earth ruptured, the air polluted and workers exploited.

They were also keen to cut the small talk.

"We need to recognise that no mining can be sustainable. We need to talk about mining that is transparent and accountable," Charlize Tomaselli, senior researcher at the Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC) non-profit told me.

She said terms like "critical minerals" and "just transition" could allow for harmful mineral extraction under the guise of a green energy shift.

The benefits of renewable energy technology for the planet could not discount the potential harm of mining the minerals in the first place, she explained.

Tomaselli also highlighted the need for remedies and compensation for communities negatively impacted by mining,  binding international treaties for more mining accountability and recognising communities' right to say no to extractivism.

On the final day of the alternative conference, participants crashed the corporate courtship taking place inside the conference centre.

They delivered a memorandum to the Indaba advisory board that urged African governments, businesses, and civil society to prioritise community needs in energy policies over external corporate interests.

In the mineral matchmaking world, activists demanded the fundamentals of any healthy, long-term relationship: being heard.

"In the dream world, communities would be involved in decision making, not just told this is happening," said Patricia Rabanye, a local environmental activist who had travelled from a mining town in South Africa's Gauteng province.

"That would be a great world to be in."

(Reporting by Kim Harrisberg; Editing by Jack Graham and Ana Nicolaci da Costa.)