SAIMM Annual Report 2026
The Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (SAIMM) presented its Annual Report at the AGM on 13 August 2026, covering the 2025/2026 financial year.
The SAIMM's 2026 Annual Report covers a year of both progress and correction for the Institute. Membership grew to 2,763, led by a strong rise in student numbers, while President G.R. Lane used his term to argue that the mining industry's real constraint isn't a shortage of talent but a fragmented professional development pipeline — leading Council to approve appointing SAIMM's first full-time CEO and to launch new initiatives like MEESA and the SAIMM Academy.
Branch activity was uneven, with Johannesburg, Namibia, Pretoria and Zambia hosting strong programmes while several others reported nothing for the year, and the technical and publications side stayed busy with flagship conferences and a well-read Journal. The most consequential news, though, came from Finance: the June 2025 financial statements had to be restated and re-audited after weaknesses were found in the year-end close process, revealing an operating deficit of around R5 million (net deficit of about R2 million after investment income), prompting the creation of a new Risk and Audit Committee and the hiring of a dedicated Finance Manager to tighten controls going forward. Internationally, SAIMM continued its involvement in bodies like APCOM, Infacon and the GMPA global alliance.