Eastern Cape sisters are doing it for themselves as well as leading the way in a revolution in the country's mining industry.

While the mining sector nationally is only just beginning to open up for small players, Eastern Cape women and youth have already organised themselves into a consortium of no fewer than 22 small companies based in Lusikisiki, Bizana, Port St Johns, Mthatha, East London and Port Elizabeth.

The driving force is Thenjiwe Mzobothe who, together with co-director Nomalungisa Williams, formed the first women-owned mining company in the province to get a licence from the Department of Mineral Affairs and Energy (DME).

The two have been mining dolerite - essential for the construction of roads and bridges - for less than a month from their 25-hectare quarry, Mzintlava, in Lusikisiki.

"Already there are many buyers - the demand is huge," said Mzobothe. "We sold 200 cubic metres in our first two weeks."

She said they have had to hire a mobile crusher from Harrismith to supply building stone while they wait with intense frustration to be linked to Lusikisiki's new power station.

"The quarry is not far away from the power station," she said. "The DME promised to talk to Eskom for us. But we haven't heard from them yet."

She said without power Mzintlava was unable to go ahead with its main project - making cement blocks, an industry that will breathe life into the desperately poor area and create over 100 jobs for villagers retrenched from mines in Gauteng.

"From when I was a tiny child I used to make rockeries with stones, and dream about what was inside the earth," said Mzobothe.

Powered by her dreams, this country girl is now in the vanguard of a movement that is set to transform the country's economic heartbeat - mining. It could also provide jobs for some of the miners retrenched on the Reef or the Free State Gold Fields.

Mzobothe is secretary to the Eastern Cape chapter of the SA Small Scale Mining Chamber (ECSSMC), which is being launched in a two-day event in Grahamstown that began yesterday.

Provincial Economic Affairs MEC Andre de Wet is scheduled to give a keynote address this afternoon at the city hall.

The Eastern Cape - historically an insignificant player in the mining sector - has placed itself months ahead of other provinces with the launch, as the national chamber was launched only three months ago.

At that event, held in Kimberley, Energy Minister Lindiwe Hendricks outlined the steps needed to transform the country's mining sector "from an industry dominated by large conglomerates and white males, and from exporting a significant part of the raw materials of our country, to an industry that is open to small players, and contributes to broader economic growth".

The ECSSMC's chairperson, Xolile Ngqameni, said there was a powerful reason for choosing Grahamstown as the venue for the provincial launch.

"Grahamstown is sitting on a potentially multibillion-rand kaolin industry," he said.

"It is the richest kaolin reserve in the southern hemisphere. There's kaolin there for 100 years."

Kaolin is a high quality clay used for ceramics, tiles and bricks.

Ngqameni said the kaolin industry was to form the ECSSMC's flagship project.

"The kaolin belongs to the state. We would like to invite all illegal, one-person digging operations into our fold. We can offer them training, technical support, help with business plans, support with financial planning and management.

"Without a licence from the DME, miners cannot get financing from the big institutions."

He said the Chamber was the voice of the small miner, the forum for channelling specific needs to government.

According to Chamber of Mines chief economist Roger Baxter, small-scale diggers account for 10 percent of the country's mineral production each year - or about R80billion in sales revenue.

Gad Kwata, the DME's director of small-scale mining, said the Eastern Cape has enough building-related minerals to supply the whole country's housing and road construction needs.

"Most of the mineral deposits in the province are almost untouched. These are not precious metals or diamonds like some of the other provinces, although there is a little coal," he said.

It is mainly minerals related to the building industry.

Apart from the projects in Lusikisiki and Grahamstown, there are reserves of building stone and sand in Mount Fletcher and Libode, there's travertine limestone in Port St Johns and high quality clay deposits in the Nelson Mandela Metropole."

With the announcement of Finance Minister Trevor Manuel's medium-term budget last week, the economic climate has opened up for a dramatic shift to infrastructure and residential housing development that could well utilise the mineral deposits being unearthed in the Eastern Cape.

Manuel's promises for the next three years include R42bn to support first-time home-owners, R31,5bn for infrastructure projects including roads and passenger rail services; R31bn to finance improved schools, clinics and hospitals; R20bn for the built environment including municipal infrastructure projects; R3bn to modernise stadiums for the 2010 Soccer World Cup; R40,7 million for emergency infrastructure repairs in the Western and Eastern Cape; and R30m for emergency housing.