Deloitte's The Innovation State of Play: Africa report is the second of a three-part global series including Canada and Australia. It is derived from the Africa Innovation in Mining study conducted by Monitor Deloitte and Mining Indaba, which is  aimed at understanding how mining companies on the continent are innovating in order to strengthen and enhance their efforts.

The survey examined current perspectives on and realities of innovation through a series of executive interviews and using the Innovation Scorecard survey methodology developed by the Deloitte innovation unit, Doblin.

The findings in the survey underpin some key questions for the industry. Is mining as an industry future proofing its collective prospects through innovation? If not, how can this impact the success stakes for all operations? Are mining companies integrating their innovation strategies throughout their organisations? If they are failing to respond to the rapid pace of industry change, how quickly can they apply innovation effectively? 

The report talks to three ‘ambition levels’, including Core innovations, which optimise existing products for existing customers;  Adjacent or incremental innovations, which expand existing business into “new to the company” business and Transformational or new innovations, which are breakthroughs and inventions for markets that don’t yet exist.

Mining houses in Africa need to push the innovation envelope if they want to succeed in a sector characterised by plunging commodity prices, deeper and more dangerous mines, labour unrest and greater geological complexity.