Future 50: Fly Ash Africa - Finding gold in the ash and growth in new markets

What if the mountains of ash produced by South Africa's coal-fired power stations could become a valuable ingredient in the buildings, roads and infrastructure we use every day?

That's the opportunity Themba Nyembezi and Dirk Odendaal recognised when they founded Fly Ash Africa, a business transforming an industrial by-product into a commercially valuable material for cement manufacturers and mines.

Themba came from a career in corporate investment, while Dirk brought decades of cement industry experience.

Together, they saw potential in a material most people would simply regard as waste.