E&T Minerals: Delivering Reliability, Efficiency, Excellence And Transparency

While trading and investment firms are vital to blue-chip operations and junior miners alike, very few are willing to get involved in mineral beneficiation. This is what sets E&T Minerals apart, as the company has committed to creating greater value for clients, while improving its own profitability, by providing beneficiation solutions.

E&T Minerals describes itself as a “Southern African trading and investment firm specialising in coal” and was founded by Emmanuel Ngulube, who serves as CEO, and Daniel Eyre, the COO. The two bring a deep knowledge of African commodities, logistics, and business practices to their clients.

Ngulube points out that the company’s client base extends across a range of industries, from steel manufacturers and paper mills to power generators and multinational commodity traders. The team, he says, is expert in identifying and securing key resources sought by its clients, from a large network of reputable producers.

“We have built this business on the principles of reliability, efficiency, excellence and transparency, and our focus is on sustainable mining assets, with sustainable reserves, that we can structure long-term trades on the back of,” he states.

“When we started this business, coal appeared to be a dying asset, largely due to the drive to exit fossil fuels. We were advised by others to consider other markets instead, as the export market for coal had dropped massively and things certainly didn’t look good.

“You could say it was a bit of ignorance on our part, being new to the game, but we also wanted to get into the energy space and needed an entry point. The beauty of coal is the sheer volume of product, meaning it was a market with a much lower barrier to entry than others.”

He and Eyre both have strong feelings around energy in Africa, noting that there are still a lot of Africans with no access to energy. Therefore, while the world certainly needs renewables, they believe the continent should continue investing in renewable and non-renewable energy markets.

Coal – and other commodities

“We understand the need for affordable energy in Africa, and while we agree that sustainability is critical, coal and oil are going to remain the baseload for Africa’s energy for many years to come. Considering the continent’s travails, coal can be used as a means to uplift people, because it is so affordable and abundant.

“Our prediction is that it won’t be going away any time soon, which is why we invested in it – although with the understanding that it has a limited horizon of around 20 to 30 years,” says Ngulube.

Eyre adds that while the company’s niche is coal, for all the reasons outlined above, E&T remains open to anything.

“We are currently looking at various other commodities, especially those related to renewable technologies. After all, moving forward in this space, battery storage will be key, so we are looking at lithium assets in Namibia, the copper boom in Zambia, as well as the potential for chrome and other rare earth metals. But these renewable-focused assets need to be developed first,” he says.

“We did have some difficulty with the European markets when the initial thrust of going green occurred, and there was a distinct lack of investment in coal in these markets which is still the case today. However, we are now witnessing a pushback suggesting coal will still be around for some time, especially as I suspect the energy crisis will worsen before things improve.”

In fact, notes Eyre, Africa is uniquely positioned to be a “saviour” of Europe in the current scenario with the Russia-Ukraine war. After all, he says, Russia was the western nations’ anchor supplier of energy. The lack of Russian gas has created a vacuum of supply, so E&T believes it has the potential to be a major contributor to the currently distressed European market.

An entrepreneurial approach

“The business was launched by myself and Emmanuel, two childhood friends with a dream, and we have grown organically since then. We have placed a lot of emphasis on building the right team at E&T, and it has been very rewarding to employ a youthful team with strong expertise that otherwise might have been sitting at home without jobs,” says Eyre.

“South Africa obviously has a major youth unemployment challenge, and we feel the people best positioned to fix this problem are the youth themselves. We are thus a young team, but we have brought in people who have the same vision as us, and the skills to position us as best in class. Not only is it really cool to have people who are incredible at what they do, which allows the business to focus on leading the pack, it also helps that our people are, by and large, very entrepreneurial.”

Ngulube takes up the story, explaining that E&T is willing to invest in its people’s ideas, even when these are not directly related to the business.

“We in fact encourage our people to build additional businesses, to have ‘side hustles’, and we help and support them to grow these too, as we recognise that each new entrepreneurial effort will lead to the creation of more jobs for the youth. With this approach, we have adopted a big-picture view of what’s best for the country as a whole,” he says.

As it is important to develop people and business, so it is equally critical for E&T to have the right partners to ensure its end-to-end systems function effectively. It is for this reason the company has a number of strategic partners throughout the value chain.

“We have taken the time to find the partners, assets and people that will work best within our business framework. The ultimate goal is to grow the business to a point where the European business will be sustainable, by delivering efficiency, stability and continuation of supply,” he adds.

“Our goal is to ensure that everyone in the chain benefits – where we can give reasonable returns to our shareholders, while also supporting the communities at the front line. For us, it’s about remoulding the way we do things to ensure that even the smallest players get their fair share, while providing the market with security that the product will be delivered.”

The key, he continues, is transparency throughout the chain, as this allows for challenges to be identified and quickly overcome, as well as providing the knowledge of where it can be grown, and where it is working exactly as it should. The goal is to create consistency and understanding, as this is vital to ensuring that all those involved in the chain benefit regularly.

“Africa has a massive commodity base. What we need is to build our infrastructure and strengthen our focus, in order to be in a position to deliver commodities to the rest of the world. In the view of E&T, Africa is going to become a shining light for the world in this respect – after all, we are one of the least tapped markets and we probably sit with the most resources.

“Therefore it is a matter of businesses like ours strategically setting up an end-to-end chain that will benefit ourselves, our youth, Africa more broadly, and finally, the rest of world as well,” says Ngulube.