Bridgette Radebe started as a miner in the 1980s. She founded Mmakau Mining.
Managing individual shafts under contract in the 1980s, Bridgette Radebe went on to start Mmakau Mining, a firm exploring and producing platinum, gold and chrome.
Bridgette Radebe was born on 26 February 1960. In the 1980s she started out as a common miner, managing individual shaft operations and producing materials for the larger mines in South Africa, working under contract.
A company of her own
She started Mmakau Mining, a firm that explores for and helps produce platinum, gold and chrome. She is president of the South African Mining Development Association and serves on the board of Sappi.
In May 2008 the Global Foundation for Democracy gave her its International Businessperson of the Year award, which recognises business people who have made a difference in a changing world. In 2019 she was appointed to the BRICS Business Council.
The detail that makes her story worth telling is the starting point. She began at the shaft, learning the work with her own hands, before she owned the company. For anyone who wants to build in a hard industry, that kind of knowledge is a foundation money cannot buy.
