Lintle Tsoake’s success story is an inspiration to young women in mining and construction
Lintle Tsoake has blazed a trail in the male-dominated world of mining and set an example for other women to follow. It’s only taken her two years to navigate through the industry and co-found her own company, Linton Consultancy. BBQ spoke to her about the experience.
Tsoake grew up in Carletonville, a small town surrounded by deep-level gold mines. From an early age, she cultivated a mindset of positivity and gratitude. Recalling her time at Letsatsing Combined School in West-Driefontein, she says, “I’ll never stop being grateful for this school. It gave me a good vision about myself. Our teachers there always see the best in every pupil.”
This positive environment inspired Tsoake to do her best, and she was duly sponsored from grade 10 – 12 by an NPO called PROTEC to participate in an extra-curricular learner-excellence programme. The focus was on enhancing teaching quality and increasing career access and success, with Maths, Physics and English the primary target subjects.
“It was during that phase that the interaction with my extra-class peers got me inspired to do engineering,” says Tsoake. “However, I wasn’t certain as to which engineering field I wanted, so I did my research on all the engineering disciplines.”
This research didn’t reveal any particularly interesting avenues to explore, so Tsoake decided to take up something she was more familiar with – mining.
“All my immediate family members work in the gold mines. My dad was no engineer but a general worker that worked so hard to take us to where we are today. He was a Section Team Leader at Gold Fields (before it changed to Sibanye Stillwater). He worked at No. 1 shaft (East-Driefontein) for over 30 years. This environment unquestionably influenced my mining route choice.”
Tsoake duly went on to study mining engineering at Wits University. She became involved in a number of student leadership roles ranging from class representative to chairperson of the Education Working Group (EWG) of the Young Professionals Council (YPC) of the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (SAIMM).
“I liaised between students and lecturers, which afforded me a chance to lead and develop a good relationship with both parties. Vacation work was a requirement and I did it at AngloGold Ashanti (AGA) and Sibanye,” reflects Tsoake.
First steps in mining
After completing her studies, Tsoake joined Mponeng Mine, the deepest mine in the world. She started in March 2019 as a Rock Engineering Trainee working with the Strata Control Officers and reporting to the Senior Rock Engineering Officers.
“My role was to conduct underground audits for both stoping (excavation of a series of steps or layers in the ground or rock) and development. I conducted rock-related incident investigations and gave recommendations in response to my underground findings. My role later changed into focusing on our Rock Engineering special projects, whereby I reported to the Rock Engineering Manager. In this role, I was also responsible for developing the Mponeng Mine’s procedure called ‘face-parallel preconditioning’.
Tsoake reflects fondly on the people she met and the lessons she learnt while working with the “Mponeng family”.
“The kind of people I worked with were like family to me and contributed so much to my career development. My role enabled me to liaise with multiple departments in the mining value chain, including geologists, mine surveyors, ventilation officers, safety officers, mine planners and the entire production line. The people I worked with always made room to enlighten me on many concepts.”
Challenges included adapting to the mine’s culture of working from the early hours of the morning and developing the ability to handle multiple deadlines.
“I always got to work around 5:20am; you can do the maths of what time I probably woke up,” says Tsoake. “Most of the challenges that cropped up had to do with completing multiple reports for different working places. For instance, I would plan to complete certain reports on a certain day and suddenly there’s a fall-of-ground that I must attend to, so the reports pile up. As a result, I would find myself missing deadlines. How I overcame this was to sometimes work on weekends.”
Another lesson was the need for continuous self-improvement. “I learnt that routine kind of work becomes boring when we stop learning. Every task, irrespective of what it is, has new things to learn from. So, to overcome boredom in the same role and to always perform at the best level, one must always fight to learn new things in that role. Seek new understanding and do research to expand your knowledge on that role,” Tsoake advises.
Rising star
Tsoake’s mining engineering career really took off when she enrolled at AGA (now Harmony) in 2019. Her mentor, a former production manager at AGA, advised her to continue along the Rock Engineering route. Tsoake had already conceived a passion for Rock Mechanics in her third year of studies.
Her mentor’s advice proved fortuitous. Tsoake avoided having to commence her career in production and was also able to connect with her future business partner.
“When I got to the mine, I got involved in a project whereby a different preconditioning technique was used to de-stress a panel intersected by a dyke. Upon completion, I had to present the work. It was during this presentation that my colleague took me a video which I only uploaded on LinkedIn a year later (2020), during lockdown. Through this, I then virtually met Hilton, my business partner from the UK.
“This meeting unleashed further development of my mining career, i.e., I moved into business using the same line of thinking I had acquired in my engineering journey. We then founded Linton Consultancy; a name born from our names, Lintle + Hilton,” explains Tsoake.
Lessons for women in leadership
Although she encountered the common challenges of unwanted approaches and negative remarks reported by most women in the mining space, Tsoake overcame them by simply ignoring them.
“Some things grow only in relation to how much we pay attention to them. What also assisted me was to clearly define who I am from the beginning, i.e. I had to be consistent in my firmness and my decent conduct. Above all, freely expressing my faith and listening to the weekly teachings of my spiritual father helped keeping some unnecessary talk away from me,” she says.
Tsoake describes herself as a leader who is interested in knowing the people she leads–and advises women to stand up and be counted.
“I’m a leader who values communication and one who delegates work where there’s need. Depending on the setting, I strive to raise the people I lead, such that they also become leaders. I rebuke where there’s need to rebuke and I coach where I need to coach.
“Most women refrain from taking over the main leadership positions, being visionaries and taking risks. They always want to be followers even though they are ripe to lead from the forefront. So following Sheryl Sandberg’s words, I would say to them, ‘Sit at the table’. Secondly, never allow external barriers to stop your ambition. Know your work and be firm.”
Dreams fuelled by passion
Tsoake’s future ambitions are fuelled by her passion for the mining sector.
“Mining is important to me because of the mass-employment role it plays in the country. For instance, Mponeng has about 4 600 employees. Mining contributes greatly to the development of mining communities, and keeps many young people off the streets through the development and training programmes. Mining adds great value to the economy of the country and does much in changing my financial status.
“My dream is to complete all my Rock Engineering papers and do my Masters. I want to be a solution-bearer in the business world and make a great impact in the lives of young people. Additionally, I want to see Linton Consultancy growing and meeting all the needs of our clients across the world,” she concludes.
Lintle Tsoake
