Minexx

Minerals are in all electronics, from smartphones to electric cars. But we must confront an unacceptable reality, that the minerals driving our clean tech revolution go through an opaque and outdated value chain, which risks funding conflict and child labour, while African countries are losing more in mineral tax evasion than they gain in foreign aid. It is the most unsophisticated $100bn market in the world. But now advances in technology, such as blockchain and digital payments, give us an opportunity to reshape this sector, from the moment a mineral comes out of the ground, tracing its journey into our consumer goods.

Our blockchain platform transforms and re-designs the value chain bringing benefits to miners, smelters, traders, tech companies and governments while directly impacting 12 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. We aim to connect 500,000 miners to the platform by 2025, and raise Funds to catalyse the sector.

Opaque and outdated value chain for strategic minerals for both Artisanal and Small scale Mines (ASM), and Large Scale Mines (LSM). Most unsophisticated $100Bn market in the world ripe for value chain redesign whilst positively impacting 250 million lives.

Minexx has developed an Integrated blockchain platform to transform trading, compliance & financing across the value chain that was developed and piloted in DRC for Tin, and that we are currently bringing to other markets and minerals (namely West Africa, and gold)

Minexx brings artisanal and small scale miners, mine managers, mining communities and traders into the digital economy, so they actually benefit from it: Minexx provides a complete software and set of services that range from digital registration of miners and mine sites, compliance information and traceability, production and trade data, digital payments, to logistics, creditscoring, trading and financing. 

Minexx lead with our software offering and provide additional services and products to support our clients and create integrated digital and fair trading companies. Our key solutions are:

MineSmart: •Miner and site registration •Inventory and finance tracking •Blockchain tracking •Login for mineral buyers •Desktop & Smartphone (for users) •Minexx project manager. Software fee model. 

Minexx Trace: •OECD Compliance Monitoring•Includes site visits + ESG support•Agent and Blockchain tracking•Traceability tags/bags with QR codes •Certifications when relevant. fee made of a % of the mineral value transacted on MineSmart for our traceability compliance support services.

Minexx Transform: •MineSmart for Mines & Payments •Buying centres •Secure transport •Digital payments to miners•Working capital & off-takers

Minexx Citizen: •Miner and site registration •GIS database integration inter ministries• (finances, mines, geology, commerce, environment) •Satellite illegal ASM site detection •Minexx project manager & support

Minexx Trading (ex: Fair Solder): •Supply of Traceable mineral from mine to Smelter•Product design, costing and marketing•Sell to tech companies for premium.

Minexx Net zero: •Net Zero tracking from mine to end users (EV, phones, jewels, etc)•Batch to batch traceability•Certifications•Project managers

250M people depend on an informal industry that provides minerals critical to the modern economy. Miners earn 3x what they would do from farming.

Environment: deforestation, water and soil pollution, wild urbanization, loss of biodiversity.  

Unfair payment and value share: Price paid to miners (and also by end users) is low as minerals travel through opaque, outdated and fragmented value chain to reach the international market.

Un-bankable: Mines have no track record and can’t get financing. Financing essential to purchase much needed equipment.

No services: Lack of expertise leads to health and safety risks. Miners can’t access services such as electricity or insurance – over 100,000 miners die each year without insurance.

Women conditions: 30% of artisanal miners are women but they are subject to unfair treatment. Unequal payments: Women don’t receive the same pay as men; and are engaged in less paid jobs. Unequal opportunity: Women typically have processing, not digging roles, which pay less. Women are often not allowed to own the pits or have a management role.

Health issues: Poor security conditions on site, and overall lack of sanitary facilities and health issues with mercury disproportionately affect young people and women given their role in processing. Women are often not allowed on mine site whilst menstruating, and face sexual harassment.
Minexx solutions directly serves all these issues, and namely the ecosystem with the requirements to log in existing environmental studies and mitigations actions, actions plans and/or to support our clients develop and improve environmental and impact studies for each of the supply sites. Minexx is therefore able to provide a holistic solution to reduction or mercury and cyanure for our clients in gold for instance, save funds for reforestation and site rehabilitation, ecosystem protection, depollution, etc Or help mitigate the carbon footprint along the supply chain. 

Minexx enables to 1) improve the way local communities perform mining activities with regards to their environmental footprint and negative externalities on the ecosystem, and 2) to aggregate financial capital to sustainably provide ecosystem services, mostly international investors, tech companies, traders, and donors. By improving the way we source and supply artisanal and small scale minerals for the clean tech for the industry, we can address the massive environmental costs that are not being internalized yet in the industry, accounted for in the price end users pay. 

We are currently starting to sell to customers but are yet to contract them in the coming weeks hopefully! hopefully anytime soon. After a POC in DRC for Tin and a few communities in Eastern Congo, we are expanding to other minerals and communities in DRC (Coltan, Wolframite, gold, iron ore, cobalt, lithium, diamonds). In West Africa we are negotiating our first expansion in Gold in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria, Guinea, Senegal, and in Cobalt, Nickel and Mica in Madagascar.

We belong a small group of early players in the traceability and fair mining world. Some strategic companies are already discussing close partnerships as they see our model possibly disrupting the way they do business, and the entire value chain. The ASM industry has not been disrupted by digital and transparency or fairtrade paradigms yet. 

500 miners in DRC

500,000 miners by 2025

We have developed a suit of reportings KPIS on each of our SDG goals, measured annually. 

5

Minexx was co-founded by Mansoor Hamayun, Marcus Scaramanga, and Laurent Van Houcke to secure the mineral supply chain from earth to tech with traceability, transparency and trust.

The team previously founded BBOXX, a next generation utility company that provides 1.5 million people with access to clean affordable solar energy. BBOXX has raised over $200M in financing from investors such as Mitsubishi, Trafigura and Engie and today employs 1000 staff over 10 markets in sub-Saharan Africa. The company has created Pulse a technology platform that integrates connected IoT devices, blockchain technology and digital payments – where each week the company processes in excess of 1 million payments. BBOXX pioneered a PAYG credit-management platform which has transformed the market, banking the previously unbankable. BBOXX has close relationships or PPPs with the governments in all the countries it operates in and a proven track record of delivering on the ground.

Through Minexx, the team are bringing their experience in technology, operations, last mile logistics and credit management to a new sector: small-scale mining. The technology Minexx develop enables a revolutionary integrated business model that transforms how small-scale sites trade, manage compliance and are financed.

Emmanuel Beau joined the team as Chief Investment Officer, he previously founded a $90M energy access fund and has executed 25 investments with a 3.4x realized multiple on 4 successful VC exits. Additionally, he has syndicated over $250m of co investments.

We hire local talent in DRC, Rwanda and all the target markets, including with a focus on woman. Our IT product manager is a female, based in Rwanda. 

We only apply to strategic grants and believe Solve could be transformative and foster our go to market and impact

Reaching to more tech companies and their value chain partners to develop fair solutions for their minerals. Need a full civil society, research, media, government and private sector lobbying and coalition building, like what was done for the Great Lakes conflict minerals a decade ago. 

Universities

Tech companies and luxury brands

Traders and smelters

Eastern DRC, Northern Burkina Faso face massive influx of refugees, many of whom end up working in illegal mining or displaced because of illegal mining and conflicts

We believe GM would be interested in developing fair mineral sourcing for some of their activities (Electric Vehicles, Batteries, Printed circuits, etc): we are discussing with OEM in Japan like Toyota, Mitsubishi, etc to develop a fair cobalt and nickel solution as well as for lithium. 

See impact on women (30% of the 250M people working in ASM)

We provide solar at the local mine sites and can sell renewable energy credits from these microgrids. 

Also doing net zero tracking for minerals. 

With AI applied to responsible mining and fair mining one can do fair pricing for miners, directly contributing to their economic social and environmental conditions.

We use blockchain and need technical assistance to sort the responsible mining challenges, and contribute to reducing pressure on the ecosystems mining happens in.