In late 2016, when Tshepiso Mothibinyane and her business partner, who is also her spouse, approached Atlantis Group, an international mining contracting company that specialised in raise boring, for business opportunities, they had no idea that the company was in fact, in the process of searching for a Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) partner to join the business.
“We approached Atlantis, through Laone Consulting Engineers, an engineering firm we started in 2015, hoping that they would bring us on board as a service provider that would render engineering consulting services, but the Universe had its own plans,” says Mothibinyane.
After several meetings with the business owners and an approval to form a strategic partnership, the Mothibinyanes approached the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) to assist with funding. They succeeded in getting the IDC to fund this opportunity and officially became 40% shareholders of the Atlantis Group of companies in September 2017.
Although the BEE deal did not go as anticipated, resulting in a strategic unbundling of the business, the experience gained at Atlantis and elsewhere in the industry gave birth to Laone Mining and Engineering, which seeks to establish itself as one of South Africa’s leading raise bore drilling specialists.
“The negotiated unbundling of Atlantis Group not only gave birth to a new fully independent company, Laone Mining and Engineering, but it also saw the new kid on the block take over some strategic assets within South Africa.” The metamorphosis also resulted in Laone Mining and Engineering becoming the first and only 100% black-owned (with 51% black woman ownership) Raise Boring company in South Africa.
Laone Mining operates in a highly niche and specialised space, competing against two major listed companies. With active operations currently running in South Africa, Mothibinyane is of the view that Laone Mining and Engineering is strategically positioned for exponential growth both within South Africa and the rest of the African continent.
“Though we are currently a small company employing approximately 35 people on site and at head office, we are poised to grow given the fact that the mining industry is under pressure to transform and we are the only 100% Black-owned company operating in this space. We also boast a team comprising of experts with combined mining and engineering experience that spans almost a hundred years.”
The main challenge that Mothibinyane predicts to dampen the company’s growth potential in the short term is that raise boring is a highly capital intense business, which makes use of extremely expensive equipment. “We need to continuously invest in equipment, which doesn’t come cheap, but we are working on deals that will bring not only more clients on board and but also more equipment, which is much needed to service new business.”
The growth of the company will also enable Mothibinyane to realise her lifelong dream of empowering other women through employment. “We inherited about 25 technical employees when we took over the drilling contract from Atlantis. Of the 25 employees who work onsite, 24 are men but as the business grows, I would transform the company by increasing female representation not only at head office but also onsite because I have no doubt in my mind that women are just as capable of performing technical duties.”
