US$1.29 billion a year, and a serious interest in spending more of it locally.

What we buy

Quintel spent US$1.29 billion with approximately 3,100 suppliers in FY2025. The largest categories are mining and processing consumables, fuel and energy, mobile equipment and parts, contract mining and earthmoving, reagents including sulphuric acid and lime, freight and logistics, engineering services, and camp services including catering, cleaning and accommodation.

Sixty-eight per cent of that spend, US$881 million, went to suppliers registered in the countries where the group operates. Nineteen per cent went to suppliers headquartered in the province or region of an operation, and 4.5% to businesses owned by people living in the directly affected communities. The group reports all three tiers because the first number on its own is easy to inflate and tells a reader very little.

How we award work

Competitive tender is the default for contracts above US$100,000. Evaluation is on technical capability, safety capability, commercial terms, local content and delivery record — not price alone. Safety capability carries a weighting of no less than 20% of the technical evaluation, and three tenders were declined on safety grounds in FY2025 despite being the lowest priced submission.

Award decisions above defined thresholds require a second signature from someone outside the requesting function, and above US$5 million require executive committee approval. No individual anywhere in the group can award a contract to a supplier they have a personal or financial relationship with; declared conflicts are recorded in a register reviewed by the Audit and Risk Committee.

Payment terms are 30 days as standard and 14 days for locally owned small enterprises. The short terms exist because working capital, not capability, is the most common reason a local business cannot bid for mine work.

What we require of suppliers

These apply to every supplier under contract. Tier-one suppliers, accounting for 84% of spend, are additionally subject to a right of audit.

• Acceptance of the Supplier Code of Conduct as a contractual term, not as a statement of aspiration.
• Compliance with Quintel critical control standards for any work performed on a Quintel site, including the unconditional right of your employees to stop work.
• No recruitment fees charged to workers, in any form, at any stage. Where a fee is found, reimbursement to the worker is required and verified.
• Payment of wages in full and on time, with records available on request.
• No child labour and no forced labour, at your operation or in your own supply chain.
• Disclosure of beneficial ownership before contract award, and notification of any change during the contract term.
• No facilitation payments made on our behalf, in any circumstances, including where they are locally customary.
• Environmental compliance with the standards applying to our own operations where you work on our sites.
• Immediate notification of any incident, injury or environmental release involving your personnel on our sites.

Supplier development

Increasing the share of spend that reaches businesses in the communities around a mine is not achieved through procurement policy. It is achieved by removing the four barriers that actually stop local businesses from winning work.

Contract size. A single five-year, group-wide catering contract is efficient for Quintel and impossible for a local business to bid. Where practicable, contracts are unbundled by site and by scope so that a business with fifteen employees can win one.

Working capital. Sixty-day payment terms mean a small supplier finances the mine. Fourteen-day terms for locally owned enterprises remove the barrier without a subsidy.

Compliance capability. The documentation required to become an approved supplier is genuinely burdensome. The group runs a supplier readiness programme that walks businesses through registration, tax compliance, safety documentation and insurance.

Technical capability. Where no local capability exists, the group has co-funded it: a heavy equipment maintenance workshop at Kitwe, a fabrication yard at Boké and a laboratory services business at Kuruman were all established with Quintel as anchor customer and now serve other clients.

The programme has supported 214 enterprises since 2018, of which 163 are still trading and 71 now derive the majority of their revenue from customers other than Quintel. The last figure is the one the group considers the measure of success.

What we will not do

We will not appoint an agent or intermediary to represent us before a government, or to secure a permit, licence or approval, on any commission-based arrangement. We will not accept a supplier whose beneficial ownership we cannot establish. We will not participate in an arrangement where a payment is routed through a jurisdiction with no connection to the work.

We will not take a gift or hospitality above a low threshold without pre-approval and registration, and our procurement staff are instructed to decline rather than to register where there is any doubt. Suppliers offering inducements are removed from the approved list, and four were removed in FY2025.