Essentially a community oriented social and labour plan project under the auspices of Ergo Mining (Pty) Ltd, EBDA was established by DRDGOLD in 2008 at a projected cost of R82-million over a five year period. The Academy was officially launched in 2009 after receiving full accreditation as a Business Development Academy with the Mining Qualification Authority (MQA) in all engineering trades, metallurgy and minerals processing, safety, health and environment, generic management and ABET up to NQF Level 1.