Industry intelligence
Community serving colliery
Black Royalty Minerals’ Chilwavhusiku
Colliery in Bronkhorstspruit.
Black Royalty Minerals, a subsidiary
of the Makole Group, launched
the Chilwavhusiku Colliery in
Bronkhorstspruit in January 2018. One
of its primary objectives was to create
economic development in the community.
Key to this was ensuring that over 80% of
the colliery workforce are locals and from
a supplier and procurement perspective,
that they meet the B-BBEE criteria
and are sourced from the surrounding
Bronkhorstspruit community.
“We have made great strides in realising
these objectives as they directly impact
on achieving the greater mining output
objective. The first load of coal delivered
to Eskom was at the end of March 2018
and we aim to deliver 50 000 more tons
of coal by the end of April,” says Ndavhe
Mareda, Makole Group chairman. He adds
that most of the trucking contracts have
been reserved especially for developing and
established businesses in the area.
Chilwavhusiku is fully operational and
has so far created direct jobs in both
specialist and administrator positions, with
staff directly employed by Black Royalty
Minerals. These include the positions
of a mine manager, mine engineer,
geologists, health and safety, logistics and
administrative support, all contributing to
the employment impact wage bill.
Additionally, the mine has set aside
procurement for services where the
suppliers will be from black-owned local
businesses, which are part of the designated
groups of youth, female, and disabled
people. Procurement of services through
black-owned, local, and designated groups
has already taken place for security, coal
trucking, diesel supplies, loading contracts,
and water carts. Employment opportunities
have been created through subcontracted
services.
“A success story, however, is not without
teething problems or challenges, which we
encountered and tackled quite effectively.
The goal was to work towards efficiency
while being creative in maintaining
sustainability, not only through business
development but through several poverty
eradication projects,” adds Mareda.
Mareda indicates that the poverty
eradication projects are set to include
agricultural farming projects and training
the communities in business management
and agriculture skills. Black Royalty
Minerals will oversee the projects for a
period of five years and intends for them
to become self-sustaining post mine
operations.
“Mining is not a mutually exclusive
endeavour when we talk about overall
economic development. Black Royalty
Minerals continues to make definitive
strides to create a greater impact in the
community and this includes support
with educational initiatives and skills
development,” concludes Mareda.
Phosphate company floats in London
Emerging plant nutrient producer
Kropz announced its intention to list
on the Alternative Investment Market
(AIM) in London. Kropz is developing
the controversial Elandsfontein
project close to a nature reserve in
Langebaan in the Western Cape. The
project has drawn stern criticism from
environmentalists, and Kropz was
embroiled in several court cases before
it received the green light to continue
mining in the area. South African
business tycoon Patrice Motsepe’s
African Rainbow Minerals is a large
shareholder in Kropz, which also owns
exploration assets in Ghana in West
Africa.
According to Ian Harebottle, CEO
of Kropz, the aim of listing in London
is to raise the necessary funds for
its flagship Elandsfontein project
and to take advantage of the AIM’s
profile, liquidity, and access to a broad
institutional investor base.
Phosphorous is an essential element for
all forms of life, and it represents one of
the three macro‐nutrients required by
all plants. The main driver of phosphate
rock demand is the need to boost crop
yields and increase global food supplies
to feed an expanding world population.
According to Kropz, Elandsfontein ore
benefits from a low cadmium content
(c.5ppm), being one of the few phosphate
rock sources readily able to meet the
proposed European Union targets.
SEPTEMBER 2018 MINING MIRROR
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