At Electra Mining Africa 2026, Charl Marais laid out a vision for the continent’s mines that isn’t about sci-fi robots or silent pits emptied of human workers. By connecting isolated machinery, control systems, and AI platforms into a single intelligent network, ABB is helping operators run hazardous underground operations from control rooms hundreds of kilometres away. In this edition of Coffee With…, PHATHISANI MOYO sits down with Marais to unpack why human expertise—not autonomous machines—will remain at the absolute core of Africa’s mining future.
At Electra Mining Africa 2026, one of the continent’s biggest mining technology expos, held in Johannesburg this week, there was no shortage of machines offering a glimpse of what the future of mining could look like.
There were electric vehicles, control systems, digital displays and the kind of industrial technology that can make a mine feel less like a collection of people, machines and conveyor belts and more like one enormous computer.
But when I sat down for coffee with Charl Marais, the man helping ABB South Africa, a division of the global electrification and automation giant, push that vision into the continent’s mining industry, the conversation quickly moved away from machines.
Originally published by TechCabal.