In response to the funding challenges young businesspeople in the South African mining industry are faced with, a fellow young professional in the mining industry recently established the Simba Mgodi Mining Incubation Fund to assist startups in the mining industry and junior miners looking to start operations.

Tailings processing, treatment, waste management and sustainable mining operations company Yeabo Mining operations head Olebogeng Sentsho explains that the fund services youth- and women-owned businesses that are registered and operating or aspiring to operate in the mining industry.

Sentsho, who was the recipient of the 2016 ‘Outstanding Woman in Mining Award’ at the Youth in Mining Business Awards, has also been appointed as this year’s national convenor for the upcoming Youth in Mining, Procurement and Transformation Summit.

She comments that the fund defines a youth-owned business as a business that is 100% owned and managed by people aged 18 to 35 and that has a minimum of 70% black ownership.

Sentsho tells Mining Weekly that entities that are 100% women-owned and -managed are prioritised. “We offer funding from R250 000 up to R10-million as debt and, where possible, as strategic equity funding. The aim of the fund is to create entities that have the potential to become industrial powerhouses; therefore, high-impact products and services are preferred,” she elaborates.

Sentsho notes the fund came about as a result of feedback that was received at the 2016 Youth in Mining, Procurement and Transformation Summit, when she recognised that there was a “critical need” for a fund to address the challenges of funding and access to markets for youth in the sphere of mining. She highlights that the fund offers asset, contract and capital finance for businesses active in the mining industry.

The fund was registered on March 24, 2017, as part of a Youth in Mining Empowerment strategy by the founding directors, Dr Sakhle Ngcobo, Dr McEdward Murimbika, Peace Ntuli and Sentsho.

She states that the fund aims to stimulate the economy by facilitating new company formation through the provision of an entrepreneurial, nurturing environment for young startup and spin-out mining and mining services companies, thereby alleviating the continual struggle for survival of the youth in mining.

“It will undoubtedly encourage young people to reach their full potential in the mining sector. We aspire to develop individual talent, skills and personality to give each business the best possible start, thus fostering entrepreneurship at a local and national level,” she contends.

In conclusion, she says, the fund has also instituted a training programme for young industrialists that will be run by the University of the Witwatersrand and funded by State-owned development finance institution the Industrial Development Corporation through the National Planning Commission’s Youth in Mining Entrepreneurial Programme.