Johannesburg - South African mining magnate Patrice Motsepe has become the country's first black billionaire and one of only two black Africans to make the Forbes list of richest people published Thursday. Motsepe, 46, came in at number 503 on the Forbes list with an estimated net worth of 2.4 billion dollars.
Motsepe was born in Soweto township outside Johannesburg. He practised as an attorney in South Africa and the United States before founding a mining services company in 1994 that became South Africa's first black-owned mining company, African Rainbow Minerals (ARM).
Motsepe was helped onto the Forbes list by soaring commodity prices.
ARM, in which he has a 42-per-cent stake, owns gold, platinum, chrome, coal and iron ore mining businesses. The company posted revenue of 875 million dollars in 2007.
Motsepe, who is married with three sons, also owns a 5.5-per-cent share in insurance company Sanlam as well as a premier division football team, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Nigeria's Aliko Dangote was the other black African to make his debut among the world's richest.
