‘Hundreds of new jobs’ at Tshipi manganese mine – Business Day

TSHIPI é Ntle Manganese Mining, which is chaired by businessman Saki Macozoma, announced yesterday that the company would create about 500 new jobs at its new Tshipi Borwa mine in the Northern Cape.

About 100 more jobs would be created during the mine’s construction. “This is really good news for the people of the Northern Cape, especially around the Joe Morolong local municipality, which is one of the poorest municipalities in SA,” said Mokgosi Nkoana, the company’s GM. “The mine is near Kuruman, an area where even one new job is good news, so the mine is going to be beneficial to a lot of people in the area.

“The Tshipi Borwa mine is a truly South African project and we do everything possible to create employment opportunities in the Northern Cape. Apart from directly creating jobs through the establishment of the mine, we are using local suppliers for goods and services whenever we can. This will create opportunities for entrepreneurs ,” Mr Nkoana said.

Tshipi é Ntle was in negotiations with a local empowerment company for it to manufacture bricks for the mine . “One of our shareholders is the John Taolo Gaetsewe Development Trust, based in Kuruman. It offers bursaries for young people in the area. This provides an opportunity to increase the local skills base,” said Mr Nkoana.

Tshipi , an open-pit operation set to start production next year, is expected to produce 2,4-million tons of top-quality manganese ore every year for the next 60 years.

It is majority owned by broad-based black South African entities and has a strong international shareholding through Australian-listed Jupiter Mines and Singapore’s OM Holdings.