When Richards Bay Minerals (RBM) began mining operations near Richards Bay, South Africa in 1976, poverty was rife in the neighbouring rural communities. Schools were overcrowded, inaccessible and ill equipped, and many teachers had received inferior training as a legacy of apartheid.

RBM built and equipped Tisand Technical High School in Esikhawini in 1988 at a cost of R8,2 million. The school has fully equipped workshops for electronics, metal work, motor mechanics and electrical training. It also has technical drawing rooms, chemistry and physics laboratories, a library complete with video section, a state of the art computer centre and fully equipped indoor sports centre. Tisand is recognised as a centre of excellence and a role model for other schools in the region, producing consistently superior results in technical, maritime and commercial fields, suitably qualifying pupils for further study or entry into the local workforce.

RBM has built and equipped five other complete schools and undertaken renovations in 23 others. In total, 238 new classrooms have been built and 201 classrooms renovated to the benefit of about 30,000 learners per annum. In addition the company has built and equipped science laboratories, libraries, resource centres and administration blocks at local schools and supported 10 crèches. More important than the provision of facilities, however, are the company supported interventions which take place to improve the quality of education offered at these facilities.

RBM has implemented and supported teacher training programmes, initiated a school management manual which was compiled from information contributed by the principals and management teams of a number of RBM supported schools and distributed by the provincial Education Department to 855 schools, serving more than 400,000 pupils. Based on this model the provincial Education Department developed its own manuals on school management, using overseas funding, which it has now distributed throughout the province.

RBM established three adult education centres to provide literacy and numeracy training as well as specific skills training in projects such as sewing, beadwork, and basket making to 200 adults annually. This enables them to generate their own incomes. An additional adult skills centre is due to open in 2004. This will focus on providing computer skills to disabled women in the community.

A new project in 2003 has focused on identifying and developing talented pupils from the RBM supported schools for potential future scholarships and thereafter, hopefully as potential employees.

In keeping with the company's commitment to sustainable development, all educational partnerships are now looked at from the perspective of providing support which can survive independently of the mine.