Modern Mining March 2015

SURFACE MINING CONTRACTING

any standards. We have some of our biggest plant on these jobs, including 200-ton payload trucks and 500-ton shovels. Nkomati is also involving substantial tonnages – around 30 Mt of waste and ore a year.” What of coal mining? “We have a long track record in coal with our first contract in this field dating back to the mid-80s – when we even had a Marion dragline in our fleet,” responds White. “But at the moment we have no coal contracts on our books. One of the problems is that with so many small coal projects around, you’re tending to get anybody with a few items of plant moving into opencast coal mining contracting – earthmoving companies looking to diversify, water well drillers and plant hire companies among others. The result is that coal has become the entry point for contract mining with predictable effects on pricing. “Encouragingly, though, some of the bigger coal mining groups have identified the risks of taking on just anyone as a contractor and will only accept bids from the likes of Aveng Moolmans and a handful of the other big play- ers. Our absence from coal is just temporary and I’m certain that coal will be very impor- tant for us going forward – particularly with new coalfields such as the Waterberg starting to open up.” On geographical diversification, White emphasises that Aveng Moolmans will go any- where in Africa – for the right projects and the right clients. “We don’t rule out any countries. We have an intensive risk assessment process

multitude of iron ore projects in countries such as Mauritania, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia but nothing came of this, as the iron ore price started to slide and the opportunities all dried up. We remain optimistic about West Africa though and are confident that it will eventually once again become a major source of revenue for us.” In South Africa, Aveng Moolmans has con- tracts at Kumba’s Sishen and Kolomela iron ore mines in the Northern Cape and – in the same area – at Tshipi é Ntle’s Tshipi Borwa manga- nese mine. Across the country in Mpumalanga it has secured a major, five-year contract at Nkomati Nickel. This started in July last year and is currently running very successfully. Elsewhere in the Southern African region, it is working in Namibia at the Langer Heinrich mine (where it has been busy for the best part of ten years) and at Phoenix mine for Tati Nickel in Botswana. In the past, it has worked in both Tanzania and Zambia but has no current con- tracts in these countries. “Most of our contracts are of substantial size,” says White. “In fact, we have positioned ourselves as a contractor able to handle the demanding requirements of ‘blue chip’ clients in terms of both the huge volumes and the high safety standards that they invariably require. This end of the market is far less crowded and prices are far more realistic. Our biggest single client is Kumba and I would estimate that we are currently moving about 80 Mt a year at Sishen and Kolomela – which is massive by

Cat 777F dump truck working at the Klipbankfontein pit, Kolomela iron ore mine in the Northern Cape.

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40  MODERN MINING  March 2015