Business Development

Barberton Blue is a large-scale 45-ha blueberry farm where 15-ha phase 1 is being developed on land owned by Barberton Mines.

This blueberry farming project has created 80 jobs during the construction phase and 22 permanent jobs for care and maintenance until the harvest is ready. At full production over the 45 ha, berry picking demand is anticipated to create over 800 seasonal jobs, as a result of the labour-intensive nature of blueberry picking. To date, approximately US$ 2.3 million has been spent on Barberton Blue, mainly for the installation of shade nets, irrigation, fertiliser systems as well as the acquisition of some 94,000 blueberry bushes from accredited nurseries.

The Barberton region has a high unemployment rate and this much-needed venture demonstrates a long-term, financially viable investment that will benefit the local communities and is environmentally sustainable.

The SEDP helps identify, support and formalise business processes for community-based SMMEs. To date, the total spend on this project is currently US$ 46.8 thousand.

The programme develops viable small and medium business enterprises over a period of 18 months and assists them to access supplier opportunities at the mine. The SEDP is designed to provide business coaching, financial management and general business administration skills as well as financial assistance to emerging businesses that qualify for this support. 88 enterprises enrolled in the SEDP in 2020, all of whom were 100% black-owned. In addition, 12 qualifying companies from the programme have been registered on Barberton Mines’ vendor list.

Amongst the community initiatives at Evander Mines is our business incubation programme, aimed at accelerating the development of local SMME start-ups around Evander. The project provides training, mentoring and support infrastructure for participating local small businesses.

A total of 10 SMMEs from Evander, Secunda, Embalenhle and Kinross have benefited, creating up to 10 permanent jobs for each enterprise. The total spend to date on this project is US$ 121.2 thousand.

One of our many B-BBEE strategies includes increasing spend with black-owned and black-women-owned businesses through proactive development projects and strategic sourcing.

Evander Mines procured US$ 7.7 million from black-women-owned businesses in 2020. Barberton Mines procured US$ 3.5 million from black-women-owned businesses and received 54 vendor applications from B-BBEE entities in 2020.

Our main procurement objective is to ensure safe, quality goods and services, control costs, as well as managing inventory across operations through decentralised sourcing.

The procurement progression programme within Barberton Mines and Evander Mines assists HDSA suppliers in identifying outsourcing opportunities within the mine supply chain. This contributes to local enterprise and supplier development.

This multi-purpose centre serves as administration and offices for SMMEs, a training venue and a hub for SMME incubation. A budget of US$ 0.2 million has been set aside for this project.

In addition, the centre supports arts and craft skills development while uplifting community skills and business development.

This initiative is centred on SMME development, skills development and job creation. To date, it has created 15 to 20 local jobs in the Evander area, where US$ 126.8 thousand has been spent on the project.

Furthermore, the Qabaso Cooperative is responsible for reduced environmental pollution and improved living conditions in local communities.