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.
It went back to engineering for the ABB Local Business Line Manager, Automation, Process Industries division.
Marais studied electrical engineering at the former Rand Afrikaans University, now the University of Johannesburg, and began his career designing electric motors. He spent years working with the fundamentals of industrial equipment before joining ABB in its high-power rectifier business.
