Mineral Trader Group

General information

Thato Maieane: CEO of Mineral Trader Group
A young black diamond dealer has received a welcome boost with the decision by the FNB Momentum UYF Progress Fund to make an investment in his business, Bakwena Diamond Dealers. Its owner, Thato Maieane is one of just a few blacks to have been awarded a diamond-dealing licence by the Diamond Board. This entitles him to do business as a buyer, seller, importer and exporter of diamonds. The R100-million Progress Fund is a public–private partnership between FNB, the Momentum group and the Umsobomvu Youth Fund that aims to promote youth enterprise and job creation.

The Progress Fund’s initial funding of Bakwena Diamond Dealers has been used to provide Thato with working capital to grow his business. “Thato has impressed us with his entrepreneurial energy and is a very motivated young man. “He is also technically very strong,” says MD of Enterprise Equity Partners, the progress fund’s manager, Duncan Randall.

Thato Maieane has a national diploma in quantity surveying from the Mangosuthu Technikon and a B.Tech in construction management from the Durban Institute of Technology. He has worked as quantity surveyor and a civil engineer in construction & engineering contracting firm until 2000, when he was introduced to the diamond industry.

Thato assisted small-scale diggers at Lichtenburg, in the North West Province & in Windsorton in Northern Cape Province, where he has strong family ties, to put together framework plans to apply for mining rights from the Department of Mineral and Energy Affairs (DME). He had just completed his B.Tech and, because of his high level of education, was asked to assist the diggers with their applications. His interest in diamonds developed from this project, and he applied for and successfully completed the Diamond Dealer qualification course, securing a dealing licence from DME in late 2001. Maieane’s company was able to set up a financial management system, and ensuring it is fully compliant with tax and Companies Act regulations. “The Progress Fund will remain closely involved with Bakwena Diamond Dealers to provide strategic and technical support, as well as further rounds of financing to fuel the company’s ongoing growth,” says Randall. An important element of the transaction is the strong ties the company has with small-scale black diggers in Welverdiend, Lichtenburg, who have received significant support from government.

Thato Maieane has identified the Welverdiend project as one of three focus-interventions to support small-scale miners, and the only one that is diamond-related. Several workshops have been conducted by the DME on issues such as the use, shapes, kinds and value of diamonds, as well as the grading and selling of diamonds in the open market.

Mintek and the Council for Geoscience have further been working with Thato Maieane in supporting the community since the end of 2001 to prospect for diamondiferous gravel deposits, using aerial magnetic studies and extensive field mapping of the area. The result has been a significant growth in the number of carats mined by the diggers. “An investment in Bakwena Diamond Dealers is not only about empowering Maieane, but it also opens up markets for the Welverdiend diggers, thereby contributing to the development of junior black miners in the South African diamond industry,” says Randall.

Compliments by FNB Momentum UYF Progress Fund