Contributing to society

MC Mining is committed to the empowerment of our people and recognises that sustainable socio-economic progress is achieved through investment in programmes that address education, employment, and improved access to basic services.

As a company, our goal is to build social cohesion and strengthen social capital within our host communities by creating opportunities that are mutually beneficial. Achieving this requires building sustainable, collaborative relationships with our stakeholders and responding to the issues that matter most to our communities. Stakeholder engagement is therefore central to our approach.

Stakeholder engagement

MC Mining’s stakeholder engagement strategy focuses on establishing and maintaining inclusive, transparent, and mutually beneficial relationships through a shared value approach. We recognise that our relationships with stakeholders are valuable assets that are critical to the success of our business and operations. To this end, MC Mining adopts a community-centred, integrated approach and dedicates significant time, financial, and human resources to stakeholder engagement.

Through our engagement with our communities, we aim to understand the socio-economic challenges they face, skilfully manage their expectations and challenges, and work collaboratively with them to create social, environmental and economic value.

In collaboration with provincial, regional, and local government structures, local authorities and community representatives, MCM has established multiple engagement forums that serve as platforms for dialogue, partnership, and shared development.

The Makhado Project is located within a complex, multi-stakeholder environment. It stretches across five farms, with seven beneficiary communities. This large and diverse stakeholder base led to the creation of a structured engagement process that ensures inclusive participation—from traditional leaders to community members. This process enhances project awareness, empowers communities through access to relevant and material information, and enables meaningful participation in decision-making.

Economic and social transformation

We believe that the communities residing within and around our areas of operation should be the main beneficiaries of our activities. In line with the goals of the National Development Plan, and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, we collaborate with our social partners and local and provincial government to create an enabling environment in which we can reduce inequalities and alleviate poverty.

While we recognise the potential of our shared value approach to address the societal and economic challenges in our areas of operation, we cannot do it alone. The State at various levels is the primary enabler of inclusive, sustainable development, and the provider of basic services. Partnerships between communities, government and private sector are key to achieving the goals of the National Development Plan (NDP) of reducing poverty and inequality, raising economic growth, increasing employment, building skills, developing capabilities, amongst others. Our collaborative approach seeks to achieve these ideals.

Through our Social and Labour Plans (SLPs) we build partnerships with communities and local and regional government structures to improve the well-being of our communities. We carefully select the projects in which we invest through a prioritisation of the challenges as we evolve from compliance to sharing value.

Seeking to build thriving communities, we aim to maximise opportunities for local communities to benefit from our activities through:

Developing entrepreneurs

In partnership with The Business Place, MC Mining, the Elevator Point programme elevates entrepreneurs to expand their business and become more professional in their service offering.

This incubation-based approach aims to systematically provide holistic support over a five-year period. This includes support and assistance to develop business plans, develop tender responses and budgeting processes. Additionally, the project provides administrative, financial and other support which may be required.

The programme provides monthly training programmes to build capacity and develop business skills, computer skills, entrepreneurship, technical and portable skills like brick making, welding, plumbing and carpentry.

Elevator Point has played a significant role in the development of the Makhado Project. During early works, local entrepreneurs were awarded contractors to the value of over R45 million. These contracts included water reticulation, construction of a bridge, erection of fencing, upgrading of lodge facilities amongst others.