Lilitha Minerals & Resources
What does your company do?
Lilitha Minerals and Resources (LMR) supplies production minerals to factories/foundries/smelters. Namely: ferrochrome, chrome ore, chrome concentrate, anthracite coal, met grade coal, steel, copper and brass.
M&R Stainless Steel - a subsidiary of LMR, is now participating further in the value chain by utilizing stainless steel, mild steel,
aluminum in South Africa and manufacturing end user products for local and the export market.
This subsidiary has toolmakers who design medical equipment, homeware steel products, cutlery and industrial equipment.
This bold foray into steel products manufacturing addresses a critical gap in the market.
A glance at the shelves in SA retail stores revealed a concerning trend, that the majority of
medical/pharmaceutical steel equipment and hospitality (cutlery and homeware supplies), are imported
as finished products for the South African consumer market, an usually as inferior low grade quality.
Yet South Africa has all the core minerals under its soil to produce raw steel and manufacture end user
consumer products with its own high-quality steel. www.mnrshop.co.za
What is your biggest success?
Rare in the value chain of ores, alloys and general mineral, does an entrepreneur in South Africa explore growth upstream and downstream.
Leading a business that understand the raw ore form of minerals from underneath the crust of the earth - to how they produce end user products for our day to day home and industrial use.
What has been your biggest hurdle?
Entering the South African retail industry and introducing end user home and industrial products that are 100% made in South Africa, with south African minerals - is challenging because society and consumers take months to years to grow comfort in a new brand.
And high grade quality steel products are usually associated with high-end and expensive. Yet M&R is aiming to introduce high/good quality products and reasonable prices.
The subsidiary M&R is less than 12 months in its development and growth phase. And the business is investing its resources to introduce M&R to South Africa.
