Vallery Horing raising the bar & secures multi-million tender at Kumba Mine

One South African woman, Vallery Horing is setting the standard for women in the mining and transport sector as she owns Loading Techniques.

Loading Techniques is a company that is contracted to Kumba Iron Ore and operates in the Northern Cape town of Postamsburg.

Through her company, Loading Techniques, Horing is raising the bar in the transport industry since securing a lucrative deal at Anglo-American’s Kumba Iron Ore mine.

Speaking to Independent Media, Horing said she launched her company as a training institution back in the day but she now focuses on mining supplies and transportation.

Horing established her company, Loading Techniques just before Covid-19 struck in 2017 to be exact and she wanted something that would benefit the community of Postmasburg.

“The purpose of the company back then was the provision of training within the local community of Postmasburg. Training, unfortunately, did not work out, and we ultimately branched out into transportation and mining supplies,” she told IOL.

Following a challenge of forcing her way into a male-dominated sector, Horing revealed that her well-drafted proposals did not receive the attention she deserved the most.

“Kumba Iron Ore advertised a tender for employee bus transportation services. We went through an extensive process of presentations to the client,” she added.

“This is exactly what was envisioned when the company was established, changing one life at a time, and ultimately impacting a whole community.”

When the deal was awarded to the successful bidder in December last year, Horing continues to say she faced challenges such as sourcing funds for vehicles because a company was required to have a new fleet.

Another door opened for the driven businesswoman, Horing after mining giant, Anglo-American enterprise development arm, Zimele, reached out to her and offered funding options.

“As women, we should never limit ourselves. There are going to be ups and downs, but you have to stay the course. With faith and determination, you will surely reach your goal,” she continued.

“There’s so much potential to create a business that really makes a difference to the people. I believe that by giving one person an opportunity you impact a household, and ultimately a community.

“I want to thank Zimele for the funding because we now also have the resources we need to execute the work and Kumba for the opportunity to do the work we are passionate about.”

According to the report, Zimele facilitated the financial backing which allowed Horing to purchase four 23-seater buses and a 65-seater bus to ferry Kolomela mine workers.

As things stand, Loading Techniques boasts 30 workers and she dreams of expanding her fleet to include trucks that work within the mine.