"Most operations are not performing at their full potential — the challenge is knowing where and how to act."
Specialist advisory across the full PGM and base metals value chain — from mineral processing through pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgical refining.
If advisory does not lead to measurable performance improvement, it has no value.
Ellenen Advisory covers the complete PGM and base metals processing value chain — three interconnected disciplines that most advisors cannot credibly span. This breadth is a structural advantage: performance constraints rarely respect process boundaries, and the advisor who understands the full system is the one who finds the real constraint.
"The activity system as a whole is the advantage — not any single discipline in isolation."
Recovery improvement and throughput optimisation across concentrators, flotation circuits, and milling operations. Understanding the front end of the value chain — where feed quality, recovery, and grade are set — is the foundation of everything downstream.
Deep operational expertise in smelter performance, furnace stability, combustion systems, and emissions management. Independent root cause investigation where internal teams have exhausted conventional diagnostics. This is the core of Ellenen's technical differentiation.
Operational advisory across hydrometallurgical refining — leach circuits, solvent extraction, electrowinning, and cathode operations. Completing the value chain from concentrate to finished metal, ensuring refinery performance does not constrain the output of upstream disciplines.
3–10 day on-site assessment with written findings and a prioritised action plan. Root cause identification grounded in evidence — not assumptions.
R80K–R200K / engagementMonthly or quarterly engagement to support implementation, troubleshoot emerging issues, and provide ongoing strategic and technical guidance to operational teams.
R25K–R60K / monthIndependent design review for capital projects — stress-testing performance assumptions and identifying hidden constraints before CAPEX is committed.
R150K–R500K / projectStructured expert consultations for institutional and corporate clients via GLG, Guidepoint, Dialectica, and AlphaSights. Deployed on-demand with no long-term commitment.
R10,000–R15,000 / hourShort-term executive or technical support during leadership transitions, operational challenges, or performance improvement phases. Including legally appointed roles.
Project-basedStructured workshops and knowledge transfer for operational teams. Systematic debrief of findings and reasoning — so the client organisation is stronger after each engagement.
R15K–R40K / dayStructured on-site assessment. Process data, production records, maintenance logs. Root cause identification using systems thinking. No assumptions — evidence only.
High-impact, prioritised action plans. Recommendations grounded in operational reality. Clear linkage between each action and expected performance improvement.
Implementation oversight and accountability. Advisory that ends at the report has no value — Ellenen remains engaged until results are achieved.
For capital projects: independent design review, stress-testing of performance assumptions. Identifying hidden constraints before CAPEX is committed.
Systematic capability building within client teams. The client should be smarter and more capable after every Ellenen engagement.
Concentrators, smelters, and refineries — most advisors specialise in one. Ellenen spans all three, which means the real constraint can be found wherever it sits in the system.
The rare combination of pyrometallurgical depth and MBA strategic thinking enables Ellenen to connect operational decisions to business outcomes — not just process outcomes.
Section 2.6.1 experience means Ellenen understands the accountability structures clients operate within — critical context that purely academic advisors cannot replicate.
No engineering firm affiliations, no EPCM commercial interests. Ellenen's only interest is the client's operational performance — advice is unconflicted and owner-aligned.
Registration across four global expert networks and the SAIMM Critical Minerals Conference Organising Committee independently verify domain authority.
"Ellenen exists to solve the problem that resists internal solution — with the technical depth, strategic lens, and accountability to ensure results are real."
Most plants are designed to perform well in theory — but underperform in practice. Design decisions made without long-term operational thinking lock in inefficiencies for a decade or more.
Ellenen Advisory works with project teams and asset owners to ensure design decisions translate into real, achievable performance once the plant is operational. We represent the owner's performance interest — independent of engineering firms and EPCM contractors who have no stake in long-term operational outcomes.
"The plant you design is not always the plant you get. Ellenen ensures the gap is closed before construction begins."
Applicable across concentrators, smelters, and refining facilities — with specific depth in the pyrometallurgical unit operations where design assumptions most frequently diverge from operational reality.
Design errors cost hundreds of millions in CAPEX inefficiency and years of underperformance. The highest-value intervention is before the plant is built — not after.
Ellenen Advisory is led by Lunga Ntanzi, a chemical engineer with an MBA and over fifteen years of operational experience across the complete PGM and base metals processing value chain — from mineral processing through smelting to hydrometallurgical refining.
Lunga's career was built at Anglo American Platinum's Rustenburg Base Metals Refinery and Waterval Smelter, where he held senior metallurgist and acting management roles, including MHSA Section 2.6.1 legal appointments. He presented original PGM research at the 9th International PGM Conference (SAIMM, 2025) and serves on the SAIMM Critical Minerals Conference Organising Committee for the 2026 conference in Johannesburg.
The advisory is grounded in a single principle: if advisory does not lead to measurable performance improvement, it has no value. Every engagement is structured to deliver a result — not a report.
If you are looking to improve operational performance, identify a constraint that has resisted internal solution, or assure the performance of a capital project — start with a conversation.