Modern Mining November 2015

CONSULTANTS/ PROJECT HOUSES

Bara Consulting thrives despite the mining downturn

client base. Clearly, there is a recession under- way in mining but it has had little effect on us, and certainly over the past couple of years we’ve been steadily building up the number of full-time employees and associates we have at a time when many other consultancies have been shrinking their manpower.” Analysing the reasons for Bara’s success, Pooley says there is a combination of factors at play. “Firstly, the partners of Bara are very well- known in South African mining circles and, in many cases, we’ve actually found that the work has come to us rather than the other way around based on business relationships developed over many years. Secondly, we have very low over- heads and we’re able to pass on these savings to our clients, who are predominantly junior and mid-tier companies with limited funds who appreciate an efficient and economical service and the value-for-money solutions we offer. Thirdly, we’re in a market niche where we don’t have a huge amount of competition. There are not too many small, multi-disciplin- ary mining consultancies around as most of the

Two years ago Modern Mining profiled newly established mining consultancy Bara Consulting. At that point the consultancy was only months old and consisted of just two people – Jim Pooley and Clive Brown – but already had a healthy workload. Today, the company has grown to 26 people (including full-time staff and associates), has an independent UK arm run by Patrick Willis, and an order book which is remarkably healthy given the parlous state of the global mining industry. Modern Mining recently spoke to Pooley and Willis at Bara’s South African office in Johannesburg to learn more about Bara’s progress and its strategy going forward.

P ooley says that Bara South Africa has worked on projects all over Af- rica and in just about every metal or mineral since being founded. “We’re very happy with the way Bara has developed,” he says. “We’ve enjoyed a very diverse workload spread over a wide

Pat Willis (centre) and Marijan Nujic (left), Technical Director of Geomet d.o.o. Olovo, inspect an adit at the Olovo lead project in Bosnia, one of Bara’s current assignments.

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36  MODERN MINING  November 2015