De Beers Voorspoed Mine

The new face of mining in South Africa

Consider a 122 year-old company with the programmes in place to take women, persons with disabilities, school-level graduates (Grade 12) and others often overlooked in the ways of South Africa’s old mining industry, and grow them into operators, artisans, engineers and metallurgists. Consider De Beers Consolidated Mines (DBCM); a truly pioneering company which is leading the way amidst South Africa’s new and improved face of the mining industry.

Mpumi Zikalala, just “Mpumi” to the many who work alongside her each day, is De Beers’ General Manager of the Voorspoed diamond Mine in the Fezile Dabi District of the Free State Province. Voorspoed is De Beers’ coveted pink diamond producing mine and was opened on November 2008 as the company’s first since DBCM entered into a landmark Broad-Based Economic Empowerment (BBEE) transaction with Ponahalo Holdings Limited in 2006.

Zikalala spoke with IRJ about working as a prominent woman in South Africa’s mining industry and the ways in which De Beers is shaping growth and development for staff, Voorspoed and sustaining market-leading business improvement principles.

Mpumi joins De Beers: a time for change

Zikalala grew up in Vryheid, a small town in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province. Her mining industry involvement dates back to 1995, when De Beers and Anglo American passed through the town in search of matriculates suitable for sponsorship in engineering and accounting studies. It was then that Zikalala joined De Beers.

“I was offered a bursary to go and study chemical engineering and I started doing this in 1996,” she recalls.

“When I finished I was given a chance to go and work at my first mine which was Premier Mine which is now known as the Cullinan Mine; the mine which is known for its blue diamonds and was sold to Petra Diamonds in 2007.”

Zikalala says that since beginning work in a managerial capacity, the working environment of women in mining has come a long way. When she started, female mining engineers were thin on the ground and today she recalls what it was like being somewhat of a rarity.

“I’ve grown within the company and it is easy for me as De Beers has a high percentage of women. Internally it’s a normal thing, but some external people still find it different,” she says.

“At my previous General Management role in Kimberley I had people coming through saying, “Hi, could we please speak to Mr Zikalala,” and I would say, “There is no Mr Zikalala, only Ms Zikalala.” As soon as I explained, they would be surprised for a few minutes then life would continue as per normal.”

In Kimberley, Zikalala worked as the General Manager for Kimberley Mines; an experience she remains grateful for today as she explains that this is the mine at which it all began for De Beers over 120 years ago.

“I was very fortunate that prior to moving here to be the General Manager of Voorspoed I actually got a chance to lead the Kimberley Mines operation which is the where our journey as De Beers began,” she says.

The next step in this journey was heading to Voorspoed and working at the mine that was officially opened in November, 2008.

Setting up Voorspoed: A mine in a million

The Voorspoed mine history dates back to 1906, when until 1912 another company, Voorspoed Diamond Mining Company commenced mining on the site.

“The reason why mining was stopped in 1912 was because of the hardness of the material which was being treated with no state of the art crushers as we have them today,” Zikalala says.

During this time when work took place under the Voorspoed Diamond Mining Company, around 4.2 million tonnes was treated from the pit and then about 950,000-odd carats were recovered.

“When we read about the history of Voorspoed we are told that even at that time the mine was known for producing exotic diamonds and the mine was also known for occasionally recovering large diamonds as well,” Zikalala explains.

De Beers was granted a new mining right by the Department of Mineral Resources in October 2006, and the physical construction of the mine, totalling R1.3 billion—US$170 million, began.

“We officially opened the mine in November 2008, but obviously between October 2006 and November 2008 we were building the mine, recruiting employees, commissioning the mine and ramping up in terms of production,” Zikalala says. “The mine will operate for the next 12 to 16 years.”

“If you understand the history of mining in South Africa, most of the mines were predominantly male dominant, Voorspoed as a mine has 35 per cent of the workforce made up of women and they are not just restricted to office positions,” she reveals.

“They’re not all secretaries, accountants and human resources employees, the women that we have do the technical side of things as well. A high percentage of the operators that we have are women, over 30 per cent.”

Add to this an array of various artisans, engineers and technical specialists such as metallurgists and geologists who are made up from the fairer sex, and the De Beers way of doing things begins to become clear.

“The second thing is that the majority of the workforce is fairly young people. The average age at Voorspoed is 32 whereas at an old traditional mine you would be looking at an average age of about 40 to 45 years old,” Zikalala says.

“In our case we’re fairly young and each and every single person we have has achieved Grade 12; effectively it means that every person passed and graduated from high school with maths and science which then makes it easy for us to bring them in and actually up-skill them.”

In fact, each and every De Beers team member at Voorspoed is undergoing his or her own journey of growth and development, as Zikalala explains that they are undergoing what the company calls its Progression Model.

De Beers: Up-skilling and investing in people

The Progression Model which Zikalala speaks of is merely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to training and taking part in the new face of mining in South Africa at De Beers.

“It’s part of the industry being revamped,” Zikalala explains.

“If you go back to the legislation of South Africa the government wants to change the old look and feel of mining. The government is prompting companies to train the employees that they have, and at De Beers we’ve made the conscious call to only recruit people with grade 12 and focus on up-skilling those people to higher positions.”

At De Beers the programme already put in place by the government has been taken, followed and expanded upon, as Zikalala explains that the company is a true leader in the developing and investing in people.

“If you look at the overall mining industry right now, the percentage of women in mining that you would typically see in South Africa is sitting at just over nine percent where ours is over thirty percent,” she says.

“We’ve also made a conscious call to bring in people with disabilities.”

De Beers is shattering old industry myths that people with disabilities incur greater accidents and safety concerns in mining.

“We found that this is actually not the case. We have a programme called the Disability Employment Equity Programme where we actually go out to the communities and find grade 12 people with disabilities, bring them into the mine and up-skill them,” Zikalala says.

“Currently two per cent of our workforce is people with disabilities and those people occupy positions such as operators in the engineering services area, the final diamond sorting area and public and corporate affairs areas.”

Voorspoed: people, product and business practises

As Zikalala rightly points out, Voorspoed stands out from the crowd instantly when you look at those pink diamonds it produces.

“Our other mines produce very high quality yellows and other high quality diamonds, however the quality of the pinks that we get is what differentiates Voorspoed from most mines,” she says.

However it is the control and company culture of De Beers which has allowed both Voorspoed and its people to flourish. One such driver is the company’s short-term focus on business sustainability in light of the global economic crisis; a concern which applies to all of the various aspects of De Beers.

“Our business is fairly integrated and we effectively cover a lot of aspects of the diamond pipeline within the business itself,” Zikalala says. “We use our own exploration expertise to find new kimberlites, we mine the diamonds, we sort the diamonds and we sell our rough diamonds. We do not cut and polish the diamonds, we do not manufacture jewellery however we do market polished diamond jewellery and ultimately sell through the De Beers Jewellery Stores.”

With these varied and interlocking business concerns in mind, Zikalala says that by implementing continuous business improvement and focusing on building a sustainable business rate, the company is braced for any repeat recessions or similarly catastrophic surprises.

“We were affected by the recession like everyone else, but we managed to survive through the hard times. Now we’re focused on sustaining ourselves through the recovery period. When we were hit by the recession we had to significantly reduce production in line with demand. We’re now seeing improvements in demand,” she explains.

“At the same time we’re focusing on innovative ways to ensure that even if we are hit by another recession in the future, our business is still sustainable.”

You cannot argue with the results. Since implementing its continuous business improvement principles in 2003, De Beers has seen productivity soar by 180 per cent.

“We believe that continuous business improvement principles will give anybody an edge compared to the rest of the industry. However whilst doing this we still want to continue with our transformation journey,” Zikalala says.

We believe that if you compare us to other companies operating in South Africa, we have done well. This is something we will continue to focus on and the areas we focus on the most is up-skilling our people. This is part of us operating in a responsible way and living up to diamonds.”

It sounds simple, straightforward and overwhelmingly successful, but De Beers has pushed its people, production and business principles through the recession, through less forward-thinking times and through to the frontline of this changing mining industry in South Africa. Behind the company’s great achievements is great people, and as De Beers continues to support and invest in them, this company is capable of achieving even more.

Add to: del.icio.us | Digg | NewsVine | Mixx | FaceBook | Twitter