Shirley Webber, Managing Principal and Coverage Head for Resources & Energy at Absa Bank, has joined the advisory board of African Mining Week (AMW) 2026 – The Most Influential Mining Conference in Africa.
Webber’s appointment strengthens AMW’s mission to mobilize the capital needed to unlock Africa’s vast mineral wealth and cement the continent’s role as a cornerstone of resilient global supply chains. As an advisory board member, she will guide strategic discussions and help shape the conference agenda on financing, investment partnerships, and sustainable mining development.
A seasoned corporate and investment banker with more than two decades of experience, Webber will contribute to AMW’s efforts to bridge Africa’s mining investment gap, as the continent seeks to unlock an estimated $8.5 trillion in untapped mineral resources. Achieving a sustainable, high-value mining sector will require annual investment to rise to more than $160 billion by 2050. AMW 2026 will convene global investors, policymakers, and industry leaders to explore financing solutions, strategic partnerships, and project development across Africa.
African nations are already seeking significant capital to realize their resource potential. The Democratic Republic of the Congo holds an estimated $24 trillion in untapped mineral resources, while South Africa aims to mobilize around R2 trillion in mining investment over the next five years to expand its critical minerals sector. Webber’s expertise in finance and investment structuring will support AMW’s mission to meet these financing requirements and strengthen the continent’s mining value chain.
Since joining Absa in 2011, Webber has played a pivotal role in advancing the bank’s support for resources and energy projects across Africa. Under her leadership, Absa has backed several major projects, across various geographies and commodities including rare earths,copper, platinum group metals and various other energy minerals and metals. Webber has also worked with leading global mining, energy and trading companies active on the African continent.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Energy Capital & Power.
African Mining Week serves as a premier platform for exploring the full spectrum of mining opportunities across Africa. The event is held alongside the African Energy Week: Invest in African Energies 2026 conference from October 12-16 in Cape Town. Sponsors, exhibitors and delegates can learn more by contacting sales@energycapitalpower.com.
Africa Fact: On the subject of cloth, Kongolese textiles were also distinguished. Various European writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries wrote of the delicate crafts of the peoples living in eastern Kongo and adjacent regions who manufactured damasks, sarcenets, satins, taffeta, cloth of tissue and velvet. Professor DeGraft-Johnson made the curious observation that: “Their brocades, both high and low, were far more valuable than the Italian.”
Swedish Twizz
Kazakhstan: You have two cows. They are both better cows than cows from Uzbekistan, who have bones in their brain.
Accidental Genius
Van is getting married, but he and his fiancee have never done the deed – in fact he\’s never been with any woman before. He\’s getting more and more nervous as the big day approaches, so he confides in his friend. His friend says \’No worries man. I\’ll come by the honeymoon suite before you guys get there, and I\’ll hide behind the curtain, and I\’ll whisper instructions to you.\’
\’You\’d do that for me?\’
\’Sure thing man!\’
So the wedding day arrives, it was a lovely service (so I was told, I wasn\’t there myself) and Van\’s friend sneaks into the honeymoon suite as promised and hides behind the curtain.
Van and his new wife arrive in the room, get settled on the bed, and things are getting steamy.
But Van is still super nervous and his tummy is bubbling, so he murmers to his wife, \’Listen babe, I\’m just gonna go to the bathroom quick. I think it\’s that wors roll from earlier.\’
\’Sure thing babe.\’
So Van goes into the bathroom, and he\’s taking quite a long time. And his wife is starting to feel the nerves herself. And it\’s getting worse. She can\’t hold it in. But she doesn\’t want to go after he\’s gone and totally ruin the mood. So she looks around and finally finds a shoebox. Quickly, she does her business in the shoebox, and she shoves it under the bed just as Van comes back from the loo.
Van gets back on the bed and they go at it again. But after a minute or so Van smells something not so lekker.
\’What\’s that smell?\’
\’Nothing babe,\’ he wife tries to assure him.
\’No man there\’s definitely something not so lekker in this room!\’VSo Van starts looking around the room, in the corners, in the cupboard, and finally he looks under the bed, and sees the shoebox.
He pull it out, and opens it up, and in horror he shouts \’Sies! Daar\’s kak in hierdie doos!\’
And from behind the curtain his friend yells, \’NEE MAN, DRAAI HAAR OM!\”