Modern Mining November 2015

CONSULTANTS/ PROJECT HOUSES

Pictured at the unveiling of the plaque during the official opening of the Fluor Botswana office in Gaborone are (from left): Andries Bester, Country Manager of Fluor Botswana, Joe McAneny, Senior Vice President, Global Project Execution, Fluor Corporation, and Charles Siwawa, CEO of the Botswana Chamber of Mines.

develop local suppliers and contractors to the maximum possible extent.” A mechanical engineer by training (he has a BSc Eng degree from Stellenbosch), Bester worked earlier in his career for MegChem and then for the Aveng group. He has extensive experience in project management and has led several projects through from the planning stage to implementation and commissioning. Apart from South Africa and Botswana, he has worked in a number of African countries including Nigeria, Ghana, the DRC, Zambia, Namibia, Malawi and Mozambique. He joined Fluor South Africa in 2011 as Head of Engineering but over the past three years has been mainly focused on Fluor’s contracts in Botswana. 

been doing this intern training in partnership with Debswana for three years now and this is something that we can also offer to other clients.” While Fluor has done well in the mining field in Botswana, all its work thus far has been for Debswana. “The challenge for me as Country Manager is to secure other clients in the mining industry and, beyond that, to gen- erally diversify our activities in Botswana to avoid an over-reliance on the resource sector,” says Bester. “The country has some substantial infrastructural projects in the pipeline in areas such as power generation, energy and chemi- cals, railways and water supply and Fluor has a fantastic track record in all these fields. “Obviously, we’re a small office currently

but Fluor’s motto is ‘Local capabil- ity, Global Strength’ – which means that we can take on projects of any size as we can draw on Fluor’s global expertise and resources. In practice, though, we’ll mainly be backed by the South African office, which now has a full engineering design capability, in addition to the procurement and project execution skills which it has always had.” Bester emphasises that Fluor Botswana needs to grow and diversify its business. “This is an independent office dedicated to serving Botswana and the idea is that it will be a self- sustaining profit centre manned primarily by employees who are Botswana citizens,” he says. “In addi- tion, part of our strategy will be to

Fluor – one of the world’s most admired companies Founded just over a century ago when a family of Swiss immigrants set up a construc­ tion company in the western US, Fluor is now headquartered in Irving, Texas, but has a truly international presence with more than 40 000 employees worldwide. In FY 2014 it recorded earnings of US$715 million on revenues of US$21,5 billion. Over its history it has been involved with some of world’s most iconic engineering projects including the Manhattan project in the 1940s, the construction of the Trans- Alaska oil pipeline in the 1970s and, since 2003, the reconstruction of Iraq. It is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading engineering groups and for four years in a row (2012 to 2015) has taken the top spot in ‘Fortune’ magazine’s annual survey of the World’s Most Admired Companies. The company has a long history in Southern Africa, dating back to 1960 when it was awarded its first contract by Sasol. It went on to work – as managing contrac­ tor – on both the Sasol Two and Three projects in Secunda. It recently signed a three-year collaboration agreement with Sasol which will see the two companies collaborating on a range of projects as an integrated team at Sasol’s facilities in Secunda and Sasolburg. 

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November 2015  MODERN MINING  49