Citizens ascend Black Gold mountain :: Mmegi Online

For years, Batswana have looked on as the mineral boom of the 1960s has gathered momentum, their role limited to employees, token directors or indirect interest via government’s holdings in mining. In this tete-a-tete, Mashale Phumaphi and Thapelo Mokhathi, directors of the first citizen-controlled mining company – Shumba Coal – reveal to Staff Writer, MBONGENI MGUNI, how they are overcoming barriers, and swimming against the tide to surf the wave in the country’s lucrative coal energy sector

Mmegi: Take our readers briefly through the history of Shumba and how it came to exist as a business concept.

Phumaphi: The company was incorporated in 2011, with Thapelo and I as the first directors. Two other board members came a few months later and the rest came in the last year or so. When we started, we appreciated the amount of coal in Botswana and looked at how we could position ourselves to exploit these resources.

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