The AmaranthMaps collection has been available for subscription since October 2022. Initially only the SA Mining Map, then the Southern African Power Map and most recently a combination of the two, as the Southern African Mining and Energy Map.
The mapping project started out as an effort to fill an obvious need for geospatial information relating to arguably Southern Africa's two most important primary industries after agriculture - mining and energy. It moved to a more sustainable subscription model when 1Map came on board as technology partner to the initiative.
We have been able to attract a reasonably significant number of subscribers - without any marketing or sales effort other than this blog, some trade press coverage, an occasional Linkedin post and a minor Google Ads campaign.
We use a combination of relevant publicly available data layers and geodata derived from primary research. Importantly no user software licenses are required. Most of our effort goes into maintaining the underlying data and improving the user experience of the browser based mapping platform. All of us involved, at both AmaranthCX and 1Map, do this in addition to our respective day jobs.
Our 12-month subscription pricing is deliberately low enough for what a mid-level executive may be able to legitimately claim on expenses - although we always suggest clearing the purchase with you boss/procurement department first. By using a credit card payment gateway it means we can avoid the interminable time, form filling, paperwork and endless waiting for payment that constitutes both corporate and government procurement processes in Southern Africa - and access to the maps is then, of course, immediate for the subscriber too.
Thanks to our commercial subscribers, we have also been able to provide free or discounted subscriptions to academics, journalists and environmental NGOs in the relevant fields.
Here are some statistics on just who the subscribers are:
Southern African Power Map
57% of subscribers to the Southern African Power Map are, unsurprisingly, Energy Project Developers - overwhelmingly utility scale and Commercial & Industrial solar PV and wind project developers. There is also a significant cohort of Consulting Engineering firms and renewable Energy Investors.
South African Mining Map
The SA Mining Map subscriber base is lot more diverse than that of the Southern African Power Map. As you might expect, the largest subscriber categories, although only 15% each, are Mining & Exploration companies and Consulting Geoscientists, followed by Environmental NGOs (10%), Journalists (8%), EIA Practitioners (7%), Academics (7%) and Consulting Engineers (7%).
Southern African Mining and Energy Map
The Southern African Mining and Energy map is relatively new and the subscriber base is still growing. It is clear though that it is Energy Project Developers who appear most interested in Geospatial data in the region.
You can find out more about the AmaranthMaps collection here.