CHANGING THE FACE OF MINING

The company has created 96 new jobs and is in the process of creating more jobs. SKM has prioritized training and development for all employees, particularly women. TransformSA touched base with Khuli to learn more about his company.

Tell us about your company and your role in it. I am Kgolagano Matshego, affectionately known as Khuli. I’m an entrepreneur in the mining space. I’m the Managing Director for Sedibelo Kgabo Mining (SKM), a drilling company I founded with my brother Tshiamo. SKM is a 100% black-owned mining services company, with its roots in Lesetlheng, North West Province, South Africa.

Please take us through the process of drilling in the simplest form. Production Drilling, in the simplest sense, is drilling lots of holes into the ground to be mined, more like Swiss cheese. The holes have to be equally spaced. For instance, five metres apart, each should be drilled to 15 metres depth for the blasting guys to load with an equal amount of explosives later.

Our client marks out the hole locations in the pit, and our operator trams the Sandvik drill rigs to each drill point. The rig has a hammer, rotational action chews the rock, and blows the rock fragments to the surface. The machine has tilt metres and a depth counter, so operators can ensure they’re drilling vertically and stop at the right depth. Once complete, each hole is marked and covered, and the machine is trammed to the next spot. We drill several hundred such holes each day, so it’s quite repetitive.

Health and safety in mining are usually one of the biggest challenges. Have you encountered this problem?

The health and safety of our employees are the first things on my mind every morning. Nobody starts a machine until everyone is 100% sure all safety protocols have been observed. We have been operating for over 365 days without a single injury! Every day our employees go home to their families safe and sound. I am happy to say that from the start of operations to this today, we have not had a single safety incident or injury to any of our employees.

Do you think sustainable and efficient mining seems near impossible? Sustainable and efficient mining, to me, is not impossible. It’s essential. We’re mining on our land, and our children will inherit whatever legacy we leave. The limit we have is that resources are finite and will eventually be mined out. Still, we must mine responsibly, taking due care, rehabilitating as we go, and ensuring all our people benefit, not just a few shareholders sitting offshore.