About Us
Founded by operators who know that chrome is won as much in the haul cycle as at the wash plant — we control the chain end to end.
Vel Mining is a proud member of the Vel Holdings Group — establishing operations across two complementary streams: open cast mining of run-of-mine (ROM) chrome ore in the Mooinooi region, and a beneficiation wash plant that upgrades that ROM into a 40–42% Cr₂O₃ concentrate suitable for international foundry and ferrochrome customers.
We went straight into a 102 tons per hour wash plant, with a scale-up to 120 tons per hour inside 3 months and a second 120 tph plant scheduled within 12 months — taking group capacity to 240 tph, alongside a complete FOB option with in-house packaging out of City Deep.
We also specialise in tailings treatment from 12% Cr₂O₃ upwards, offered either as a 50/50 split on recovered product or a flat treatment fee depending on the quality of the tailings supplied.
We are intentionally vertically integrated. A sister logistics company operates a side-tipper fleet purpose-built for chrome haulage — meaning the same team that mines and beneficiates your concentrate is the team that delivers it to the rail siding or port. The result is a tighter, more accountable supply chain for buyers.
On the Ground
Our leadership is on site — alongside the contractors, fabricators, and plant crew building Mooinooi seam by seam. Every decision is made within earshot of the spirals.
Leadership
Founder & Managing Director
Jared Govender is an engineer, industrial strategist, and the vision behind Vel Mining. Armed with a foundational background in engineering, Jared approaches the commodities and extractive sectors through a lens of strict technical efficiency, first-principles logic, and aggressive operational optimization.
As Founder and Managing Director, he leads Vel Mining’s strategic expansion across sub-Saharan Africa — spearheading high-yield gold ventures in West Africa alongside heavy industrial chrome processing and bulk commodity logistics operations within South Africa. Jared specializes in taking complex, capital-intensive infrastructure projects from raw concept to high-efficiency execution, ensuring every vertical under the Vel umbrella operates at peak technical and financial standard.
Driven by a commitment to operational excellence and technological integration, Jared is focused on building a resilient, vertically integrated industrial legacy that moves African resources with world-class efficiency.
Co-Owner & Strategic Director
Karthikayan Domodaran is a veteran business master with more than three decades of commercial leadership. As Co-Owner and Strategic Director, he shapes Vel Mining’s long-term commercial architecture — how the group earns, where it invests, and which markets it commits tonnage to.
His core mandate is building Vel Mining’s international value chain: connecting South African chrome production directly to smelters, foundries, and trading houses across India, China, and the wider Asian market, and structuring the offtake, financing, and logistics arrangements that make those relationships durable rather than transactional.
Thirty years of negotiating across cultures and cycles gives Karthikayan a rare instinct for timing, counterparty risk, and margin — ensuring every ton Vel produces is placed where it creates the most value for the group and its partners.
Chief Operations Officer
John Meyer brings over 22 years of hands-on experience across the mining, engineering, and petrochemical industries — with deep specialisation in the chrome processing sector. As Chief Operations Officer, he leads Vel Mining’s plant operations, process optimisation, and production performance from the ground up.
John has personally owned and operated three chrome wash plants, and over the last two decades has designed, built, commissioned, and optimised more than eight chrome wash plants across South Africa. That practical track record gives him a rare, end-to-end command of plant construction, throughput efficiency, yield recovery, and commercial performance — the exact disciplines that define Vel’s Mooinooi operation.
His career spans underground mining contract management, asset recovery projects, and operational leadership across the platinum, gold, and chrome sectors — including long-standing relationships with major mining houses such as Anglo Platinum. He is equally comfortable negotiating at executive level and standing on a plant floor solving a process bottleneck.
A natural leader, John is service-oriented, decisive, and thrives in demanding remote environments. He views every challenge as an opportunity — a mindset shaped by personal resilience and a relentless focus on delivering measurable results for Vel Mining’s customers, partners, and team.
Management Team
Strategic Operations Manager
Jean Pierre translates Vel Mining's growth plan into daily execution. He owns the operating rhythm across the wash plant, tailings circuit, and haulage schedule — sequencing feed, plant availability, and dispatch so that tonnage commitments are met without stockpile surprises. His focus is throughput discipline: measuring where hours and units are lost, and closing those gaps shift by shift as the plant ramps from 102 tph toward 120 tph and beyond.
Production Manager
Chandan is the plant master. He runs the beneficiation circuit hands-on — feed ratios, water balance, spiral splits, and screen performance — and is accountable for grade, yield, and recovery on every shift. Having grown up on chrome plants, he reads a circuit by sound and sight before the numbers confirm it, and he leads the production crew that keeps the 102 tph plant and the tailings re-treatment line running at spec.
Business Development Manager
Dean is Vel Mining's sales specialist, responsible for acquiring new customers and retaining existing offtakers, traders, and tailings clients. He manages the commercial pipeline from first enquiry through to repeat tonnage, and doubles as site administrator and data capturer — owning production records, dispatch documentation, and the reporting that gives buyers and management a clean, verifiable view of every load.
Site Manager & Qualified Fitter
Camden runs the site and keeps the iron turning. A qualified fitter by trade, he leads maintenance, mechanical installation, and breakdown response across pumps, spirals, conveyors, and screens — with a preventative maintenance regime built to protect plant availability. He also carries site discipline: contractor coordination, safety compliance, and housekeeping standards across the Mooinooi operation.
