trAnter HoLdInGs
FEATuRE
Gekko was
wrong Greed isn’t good
Tranter proves there is more to business than profit. By Ian Armitage
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Tranter Holdings Focus mining
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n the 1987 Academy Award winning film Wall Street Michael Douglas played the loathsome and crooked stockbroker Gordon Gekko, who famously said “greed is good”. He was wrong. The future belongs to businesses that can “make a meaningful impact and contribution,” says Joshua Ngoma, the charismatic CEO of Tranter Holdings, not those that chase “a quick buck”. “We prove that there is more to business than profit and that putting control and ownership in the hands of those doing work pays off. Unlike most businesses, which exist solely to make a lot of money for a small group of investors and work on competitive principles, we are convinced we can achieve greater success if we empower other regional stakeholders in the mining industry and we are prepared to take risks with our resources and energy towards achieving that goal. Our mission is to help people become self-sustaining by utilising the natural resources they have in their own environment for upliftment so that they no longer need to depend on handouts. An absolute condition for our investment is that local communities have something to contribute – be this local knowledge, community influence or skills. If they do not have these we will help to empower them.” Tranter – championed by Sipho Nkosi, Humphrey Mathe, Mxolisi Mgojo and Ngoma, four top black mining personalities – has had a significant impact on the development of local communities in South Africa and more recently Zambia. “We founded the business in 2002 but operationalised in 2007,” says Ngoma, who has worked all of his life in the mining industry, initially with ZCCM in Zambia then Cementation Mining and several other businesses including De Beers, Anglo Platinum and Sasol Mining. “Our objective is to focus on the mining and energy industries
in Africa and acquire businesses in those fields. We are looking to give opportunity to those that would not otherwise have had the ability to actively and directly participate in the economic activities of our region. “Basically, we seek to create, invest in or acquire businesses where we can make what we call a meaningful impact.” Tranter, an abbreviation for TRans-African Network of Technical and Entrepreneurial Role models, is divided into mineral resources on one hand and mining services on the other. In mineral resources, the company typically acquires early stage prospecting or exploration interests and brings them up the value curve. “Tranter Resources is actively involved in securing prospecting rights in South Africa, Zambia and the SADC region in general,” says Ngoma. In 2008 it helped form a Zambian local Company called Tranter Resources Zambia, he says. Hard rock tools in warehouse at TRD
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Warehoused products ready for dispatch at TRD
Finished machines in warehouse ready for dispatch
TRD Factory
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To date it has spent close to $5 million exploring manganese, copper and other minerals in the Luapula Province. “Tranter Resources Zambia is the first indigenous company that has gone into large-scale exploration in Zambia with the aim of becoming the first mining company to develop large-scale mining in the province. That will be in a few years. The business has its own CEO called Dr. Sixtus Mulenga who also heads the local shareholder partner. In Zambia, we have used our experience in South Africa to work with local professionals within the mining sector to develop the mineral resources in the country.” Part of the income derived from the business will be used to help fund other secondary developmental projects in the area “such as brick-making, agriculture, tourism, etc., that will evolve as a result,” Ngoma says. “So far, we have done geochemistry, pitting and trenching in our two big tenements and will soon start intensive drilling to establish the size, extent and quality of the ore body with the aim of establishing large-scale mining by the first half of 2013 together with our local partners. That is the Tranter Holdings remit.” Apart from Tranter Resources, there are two other subsidiaries on the resources side. The first, Tranter Kismet, formed with a group comprising predominantly professional women, owns shares in JSE-listed Wits Gold. The second, Tranter Gold, comprising Tranter Holdings and five other broad-based economic empowerment groups, owns shares in Great Basin Gold, a Canadian company that is primary listed on the TSX, and secondary listed on the JSE. “On the services side,” Ngoma says, “we also have Tranter Energy and Mining Services, a mining and energy focused company, which acquired Boart Longyear’s South African Rock Drill manufacturing operations, a move that signalled our intentions to expand strategically. That
Tranter Holdings Focus mining
business is called Tranter Rock Drills.” The deal included Boart Longyear’s percussive rock drills and hard rock tools product lines for sub-Saharan Africa and the rest of the world, and all its manufacturing operations in Roodepoort. “This business too is in line with our philosophy of empowering people,” says Ngoma. A quarter of Tranter Rock Drills is employee-owned. “The unit is fully, effectively and efficiently managed and partly owned by its employees,” explains Ngoma, who said it is one of the “major suppliers of pneumatic rock drills and hard rock tools” in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Americas, and parts of Europe. “We have seen orders increase and that business is progressing extremely well,” he says. “We have captured much of the market, both in the Americas as well as in Africa. At the moment, we are working to bring services closer to centres of operation, establishing repair workshops, and we have been investing in improving technology and getting better stock. We are seeing a lot of mining houses moving to our equipment because of that and moving away from other suppliers. That gives us an advantage and because of that we have started to recapitalise; we are buying new equipment to improve capacity and efficiency. We have already put through the orders for the new equipment and we are hoping in the next six months to have the factory fully equipped with equipment that is new and more efficient in order for us to fulfil the requirements of the market. There is a lot of potential for us and we continually work to improve our efficiencies on that side so we can offer the market a competitive price and service.”
Much of what Tranter intends to do next is in the planning stage, however. “One of the things you have to be careful not to do is move at a speed you cannot control. You have to develop sustainably,” says Ngoma. “We are proud of what we have been doing in Zambia and with how the Tranter Rock Drills business is progressing. “We want to expand but that will come in due time: we have planned for that and we think it is going in the right direction. “ To learn more visit www.tranterholdings.com.
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