The Mission of Impact Minerals Development Group (IMDG) is to do project development for promising greenfield and brownfield minerals extraction opportunities in Southern Africa, typically concluding with Bankable Feasibility Studies (BFSs).
IMDG’s operational core is a team of eight industry veterans, two each with top credentials in
- geology,
- mining engineering and mine management,
- chemistry and metallurgy, and
- engineering disciplines (mechanical, electrical, instrumentation & control, civil and structural),
all as applied to the mining and minerals processing industry.
Combining their depth of expertise and extensive experience, acquired when South Africa was still a global leader in mining, the IMDG core team is ideally equipped to lead project development work, which means to conceive, design and plan an optimal mining and minerals processing operation, and to assess its profitability. This work is exacting and has a decisive impact on the operations and financial performance of the asset.
The IMDG core team will select a team of professionals with the required mix of credentials for the particular project and lead the team in undertaking the successive project studies, concluding with a confirmed Bankable Feasibility Study (BFS). The exploration and test work required in support of the studies will also be done under the direction of the core team.
IMDG is growing an extended team of self-employed professionals covering all the specialisations required and who are ready to be contracted on an as-required, non-exclusive basis. From this pool of professionals, IMDG will select contributors to project studies, as well as assistants and successors to core team members.
IMDG’s Strategic Strength is its capacity to produce BFSs to a very high standard, which is founded on its core team of industry veterans and its ready access to the numbers and spectrum of professional resources. Such a capacity has become increasingly scarce in Southern Africa. Because IMDG will specialise in doing project development, its professional resources will become ever more accomplished in this work.
IMDG is not a typical consulting firm – it prefers to do project development using its entrepreneurial business model. This model is most profitable for IMDG, for the investors in the project development ventures, and for the original rights holders. That said, IMDG is always ready to do project development on a client’s project for a fee. IMDG also has access to owner-type investors who find the ‘bespoke’ project development business model attractive. In this model, the prospective owner undertakes to fund the project development of a promising asset, identified and proposed by IMDG, in phases, progressively acquiring shareholding options in the project. Upon completion of the BFS the investor will be the majority shareholder with the balance going to the original rights owner. IMDG’s three models for doing business are described more fully in the section under that heading.
IMDG’s Vision is to be a catalyst for much-needed growth in the minerals industry of Southern Africa, attracting substantial foreign direct investment to promising project opportunities.
IMDG’s Purpose is to produce wealth for its stakeholders, which are its
- shareholders,
- investors,
- professional resources,
- rights holders to project opportunities who choose to become IMDG’s business partners
- the communities that host IMDG projects, and
- the general population.
Besides wealth, the greatest reward for veteran professionals who take pride in their work and are approaching the culmination of their careers is to have their accumulated knowledge and insight well utilised and valued by their peers. The core team members and other veteran professionals who will contribute to IMDG projects share this particular motivation. This will benefit all of IMDG’s stakeholders.
Communities that host IMDG projects are key stakeholders
IMDG will encourage and facilitate the establishment of a well-managed trust or co-operative for the benefit of the local community, if it does not already exist as a rights holder. Such a representative body should have equity in the project, accounted for in the BFS. Support from the local community will be incentivised in this way and much of the social responsibility of the future operating company will be met, so offsetting any dilution of equity.
IMDG’s Ethical Values are
- Honesty and honour (honouring commitments) are non-negotiable.
- Win-win relationships between parties are sought whenever possible.
- IMDG’s social responsibility is a pragmatic balance between altruism and the interests of all its stakeholders, as is exemplified in IMDG’s policy with regard to hosting communities.