Aboriginal-owned. Family-governed. Constitutionally committed to social impact. Jahkai is a mining services company built on 30,000 years of underground heritage and a promise that carries one child's name into every contract we sign.
Aboriginal Australians have been mining underground for over 30,000 years. Wilgie Mia in Western Australia is the world's oldest continuing mining operation — a red ochre mine that predates every other mining tradition on Earth. The ochre extracted there was traded along songlines spanning 1,600 kilometres across the continent, representing one of humanity's first commodity supply chains.
This is not mythology. These are archaeologically verified facts. When our teams go underground, they are not simply mining or tunnelling — they are continuing a sovereign legacy older than the pyramids, older than Mesopotamian civilisation, older than written history itself.
Jahkai's leadership team holds the highest global qualifications in underground mining and tunnelling, with decades of combined operational experience across multiple mine sites and major infrastructure projects. Our expertise spans hard rock, soft ground, coal, gold, copper, zinc, and civil tunnelling — a breadth of capability that few firms in the world can match.
Jahkai is named for Jahkai Drinkwater, our founder's youngest son, who lives with Down syndrome. He is the reason this company exists. Not as an act of charity, but as an act of purpose.
Our founders made a decision: that any enterprise they built would carry Jahkai's name — so that every contract signed, every mine site entered, every handshake in every boardroom would carry with it a reminder of why they do this work. Not for profit alone, but for the people who never get a seat at the table.
This is a family enterprise in the truest sense. Aboriginal-owned, family-governed, and structured so that the commercial engine serves a social purpose that cannot be removed by future shareholders or market pressure. The commitment to First Nations empowerment and disability inclusion is embedded in the company's constitution and shareholders' agreement — it is not discretionary, and it is not negotiable.
Embedded in the constitution and shareholders' agreement. Not discretionary. Not a marketing exercise. A binding structural commitment that travels with every contract.
Jahkai is majority Aboriginal-owned and qualifies for certification through Supply Nation, Australia's leading directory of verified Indigenous businesses. This means every dollar spent with Jahkai contributes to Indigenous procurement targets for government agencies, Tier 1 miners, and major contractors operating across the GCC and beyond.
Our ownership structure is not a vehicle for Indigenous procurement points. It reflects the genuine heritage and lived experience of our founding family. The Aboriginal ownership, the disability commitment, and the commercial capability are inseparable — they are the same enterprise, governed by the same people, serving the same purpose.
The Jahkai story resonates across cultures because it is built on values that are universal: family, heritage, sovereign purpose, and the belief that commerce should serve something beyond the transaction.
In Aboriginal Australia, mining is a 30,000-year-old sovereign practice. Country is not just land — it is identity, law, and obligation. When Jahkai operates on Country, it does so carrying the longest continuous relationship with the underground that any civilisation on Earth can claim.
In the Gulf Cooperation Council, family enterprise is the foundation of commercial life. The great Gulf trading families — Kanoo, Al Gosaibi, Al Zamil — built multi-generational businesses on the same principles that govern Jahkai: family governance, intergenerational purpose, and the understanding that a business carries the family name into every room it enters. Gulf business culture understands implicitly what Jahkai represents: a family enterprise with sovereign purpose, not a corporation with a CSR page.
The disability commitment travels with the work. Jahkai is named for our founder's youngest son, who lives with Down syndrome. 10% of net profit is constitutionally committed to First Nations economic empowerment and disability inclusion, in every country we operate.