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November 2015
MODERN MINING
45
feature
CONSULTANTS/
PROJECT HOUSES
High Commission in Accra, Ghana’s capital.
“We attended the seventh WaCA (West
Africa and Central Africa) Mining Summit
in Accra in May this year and we’re look-
ing at developing partnerships in Ghana, as
we believe that this is the only way we can
establish a foothold in the region,” Pieterse
states. “As regards Central Africa, our original
thinking was to access it via Lubumbashi in
Katanga, which we know well, but increas-
ingly we believe that a sound alternative could
be Rwanda, which is now a stable country
offering an excellent business environment.
The tax regime is favourable and a range of
incentives is available to investors. One of our
directors has recently visited the country and
was very impressed by what he saw.”
Within Southern Africa, VBKom has been
particularly active in the Northern Cape virtu-
ally since it was founded. “About 80 % of our
business has historically been derived from the
iron ore and manganese mines in the area and
– in recognition of this fact – we’ve now opened
an office in Kathu which is headed by Hannes
Cronjé,” says Pieterse. “He is a top-notch open-
pit expert, as evidenced by the fact that he was
previously Sishen’s Mining Manager.
“We’ve also done extremely well in Namibia,
where our operation is run by Werner Moeller.
He is a Namibian citizen and earlier in his
career worked at Rössing Uranium. He has put
us on the map in Namibia and clients include
Swakop Uranium, which is developing the
massive Husab uranium mine, Bannerman,
which hold the Etango uranium project, QKR’s
Navachab gold mine, and Lodestone Namibia,
for whom we’re doing a BFS on the Dorbabis
iron ore project.”
Moving to the disciplines within VBKom,
perhaps the one that is least understood in the
market – certainly amongst the smaller min-
ing clients – is industrial engineering. One of
the company’s experts in this field is Strauss
Oosthuizen, who explains that the discipline
concerns itself with the analysis and optimisa-
tion of complex processes or systems, whether
they be in mining or any other industry.
“The key is to eliminate inefficiencies and
redundancies and to do more with less,” he
says. “Mining engineers, for example, can
design a workable open-pit mine that will be
perfectly functional but an industrial engineer
is required if you want an optimal operation.
Industrial engineers bring a totally differ-
ent perspective to the analysis of any system
or process and will hone in on details which
would almost certainly be missed by col-
leagues in the more mainstream disciplines.
It’s a totally different paradigm but the results
can be remarkable.”
Strauss is also involved in VBKom’s risk
management and decision support services.
“The techniques we use have application in all
industries but are particularly relevant to min-
ing where companies often have to take major
investment decisions that they will generally
have to live with for years into the future,” he
observes. “We have a toolbox of methodologies
that we can draw on to assist clients with their
decision making and which go well beyond
what is available from the more narrowly
focused mining engineering consultancies.”
Finally, what of the future for VBKom? Manie
Kriel is adamant that the consultancy must
grow. “We have an appetite to be bigger and to
service every part of the mining value chain,
from exploration through to mine closure,” he
says. “If you stay as you are, then that’s stagna-
tion. Having said this, we are in a really severe
downturn in mining and growth is clearly not
going to be easy to achieve in the short or even
medium term. There’s a price war in the mar-
ket and we’re even finding that the big EPCM
houses are increasingly intruding into the con-
sulting space in an attempt to find work. Our
restructuring, however, positions us well for the
current business environment and will allow us
to maintain our position and even grow while
we wait for the inevitable upswing.”
VBKom assisted Kolomela
mine in the Northern Cape
on its five-year Heavy
Mining Equipment (HME)
replacement strategy as it
moved from contractor to
owner mining.
“In essence, we
now offer seven
niche services
over three
revenue streams
or commodity
focus areas
and in three
geographical
regions.”
VBKom’s Werner Heenop at
the Kathu office.