Mining and minerals
Mining project funding in South Africa and Africa
Mining capital is disciplined capital. Funders test the resource, the right, the permit pathway, the offtake and the operator before price is ever discussed. 36M Capital prepares mining opportunities so that assessment can happen.
Why funding stalls before it starts
Junior and mid-tier mining projects across South Africa and the wider continent compete for a narrow pool of specialist capital: resource funds, offtake-linked traders, strategic investors, development finance institutions and, at the larger end, syndicated debt.
The most common reason a mining project fails to attract funding is not geology. It is an incomplete chain of evidence — a right that is not yet executed or transferable, a resource statement that does not meet a recognised reporting code, an environmental and social pathway that has not been costed, or an operator without a comparable track record.
We prepare the file: the corporate, legal, technical and social evidence a funder will require, sequenced so that spend is only incurred where it materially advances bankability.
Sources of capital
Where mining project capital comes from
- Resource and mining-focused funds
- Equity and convertible instruments for exploration through to development, priced against resource confidence and jurisdiction risk.
- Offtake and trader finance
- Prepayment and streaming structures where a buyer secures product in exchange for funding the route to production.
- Strategic and industrial investors
- Producers and downstream processors taking a stake to secure feedstock, often bringing technical capability with the capital.
- Development finance institutions
- Support where beneficiation, employment, community outcomes and environmental performance are demonstrable and measured.
- Debt and syndicated facilities
- Available once reserves, permits, offtake and an experienced operator are all in place and the project is construction-ready.
What funders test
What mining funders test
- Mineral right and tenure
- An executed, valid and transferable right, with the ownership chain, cession consents and compliance history documented.
- Resource and reserve reporting
- A resource statement prepared by a competent person to a recognised reporting code, with the drilling and assay basis available.
- Permitting and environmental pathway
- Environmental authorisation, water use licence, waste management and closure provisioning mapped, costed and dated.
- Social and community framework
- Community engagement, labour plan and legislated social commitments addressed as project obligations, not afterthoughts.
- Technical study and operator
- A scoping, pre-feasibility or feasibility study at a stage appropriate to the ask, and an operator with comparable experience.
- Offtake and route to market
- Logistics, processing and buyer arrangements that show the product can physically and commercially reach a market.
36M HIP™
How 36M Capital prepares the project
We coordinate independent competent persons, environmental practitioners, legal advisors and technical specialists, screen the project against the evidence a funder will demand, and package the result into a coherent, defensible file.
- 01
Identify
Define commercially relevant opportunities.
- 02
Screen
Assess strategic fit, commercial potential and sponsor capability.
- 03
Shape
Develop the commercial model and delivery strategy.
- 04
Prepare
Coordinate governance, documentation, partnerships and readiness.
- 05
Validate
Assess preparedness for institutional engagement.
- 06
Transition
Introduce mature opportunities into formal capital structuring and transaction processes.
Preparing a mining project for capital
Whether the project is at exploration, study or construction-ready stage, we start with a mutual non-disclosure agreement and a structured screening of the rights, technical work and corporate material you already hold.