Meet Wilson Masilo, an inspiring 34-year-old entrepreneur who, with the help of funding and support from our enterprise development arm, Zimele, established Simmer Deep Gold Mining (Pty) Ltd – an aspiring gold reclamation company in Mogale City.
Essentially, Wilson’s company re-mines old mining dumps with the hopes of growing this venture into a fully-fledged mining company.
It all started with a good education. Growing up in Rustenburg and after finishing his matric, Wilson was proud to be selected as one of our bursary candidates. After getting his MBL, Bcom and an engineering degree, his dreams of mining finally came to life when Zimele stepped in.
The funding, which came from Zimele’s Anglo American sefa Mining Fund, helped Wilson buy the equipment he needed to get his business up and running.
Zimele’s Anglo American sefa Mining Fund helps grow emerging black empowered mining companies into commercially bankable enterprises. On top of funding support, the fund also gives entrepreneurs like Masilo a wealth of technical business advice and support, helping them establish long-term and effective business relationships.
Now, this dynamic entrepreneur has been able to help boost the Mogale City economy, at the same time creating much needed jobs. In fact, simply through re-mining old mine dumps, Wilson has already created 65 permanent jobs.
Wilson’s advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is that it’s not an easy job. “Getting your business off the ground is extremely hard, but Zimele has helped make this journey easier for me. Never lose hope because there are partnerships like Zimele that make starting up a new business bearable.”
Simmer Deep Gold Mining (Pty) Ltd is just one of over 1885 businesses that have been supported by Zimele over the past 25 years. Over this time, Zimele has helped create over 38,000 jobs. By supporting passionate and committed entrepreneurs like Wilson, Zimele believes it is making a real difference for communities across South Africa.