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Materials Division
An asphalt plant on the N1 near Vanderbijlpark.
The Materials Division was formed mostly out
of the acquisition of various other companies in
keeping with the Raubex Group’s strategy of vertical
integration.
“Raubex essentially started out as a road construction company and
then post-listing went on the acquisition trail in 2007 for companies
in the mining, materials supply and engineering environment,” Tobie
Wiese, Head of the Materials Division, says.
“The engineering aspect services both the mining industry and
process plant manufacturing, in-house and for the external market.
One of the most important things about the Materials Division is
that although it forms part of the vertical integration strategy of the
Raubex Group, its main client base is external.” The companies that
constitute the Materials Division only generate about 20% of their
revenue from the Raubex Group.
The Materials Division has also secured a substantial contract for
the design, build and operation of a crushing and processing plant at
the Tschudi copper mine in Namibia. “We are working for most of the
major listed mining companies, including De Beers, Billiton, Kumba,
Gold Fields, Sibanye and Pilanesberg Platinum,” Wiese says.
“Hence we have got quite a diversified exposure. However, we
do not own resources as such. We provide engineering, materials
handling, processing, mining and beneficiation services. We gravitate
towards the minerals processing side, where we have a lot of
technical strength.”
Wiese says the strength of the Materials Division lies not only
in the technical and engineering skills of its member companies, but
also in the highly competent and dedicated management team.
The division employs about 4 300 people out of a total of 9 000
within the Raubex Group.
This means that health and safety is high on the agenda. “Our
target is to have a Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) of below
one, and this year it is at 0.8. This is a major driver for us in the
Materials Division,” Wiese says.
The Materials Division has also embarked on a number of
Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives, such as a school project in
Namibia.
Raumix Aggregates
Raumix Aggregates, established 23 years ago exclusively to service
the road construction arm of Raubex with aggregate and sand, now
operates 12 quarries. “It is important for us that we service our
external clients to their satisfaction on a competitive basis. I think
the Materials Division has grown substantially since the listing, partly
as a result of organic growth and partly as a result of acquisitions.
Some of the latest acquisitions we have carried out are in commercial
supply of aggregates.
“We have just acquired a cluster of quarries in Gauteng, where we
are carrying out sand mining operations as well as an aggregate and
gypsum operation in the North West province, through the acquisition
of OMV Crushers. At this point in time we are also looking at
acquisitions in Botswana in order to increase our geographic spread.”
B&E International
B&E International focuses on the design, build and operation of
minerals process plants and brands itself as a ‘partner of choice’ for
the mining and construction industries with its integrated crushing,
mining and mineral processing solutions.
While B&E International has been designing and manufacturing
plants at its Port Elizabeth facilities since the 1990s on an in-house
basis, it has now branched out, offering this to the market in general.
“We believe there is a definite gap that we can fill in terms of
purpose built plants and maintenance and operational plants for
mine owners,” Wiese says.
The company was established in 1972 as a drilling and blasting
specialist in the Eastern Cape and soon diversified into the mobile
crushing sector with its own mobile and static crushing division.
Tobie Wiese, Head of the Materials
Division.
In 1993 it entered the mining services sector and
diversified further into bulk mining, processing
and mineral beneficiation. B&E International
was acquired by the Raubex Group in
2008, completing its transformation into
a strongly focused crushing, mining and
mineral processing company.
On the mobile crushing and screening
side, the company operates various crushing
plants ranging in size from about 50 tph
to 500 tph, and from single stage
plants all the way up to massive five
stage crushing plants. This gives
B&E International the capability to
produce a range of products from road
stone to high quality manufactured
concrete sand, base course, concrete
aggregates, water bound Macadam,
ballast and filter media.
Comar
Comar, a business that designs and
manufactures asphalt plants, was
acquired by B&E International in
2012. It started out as a small
local manufacturer and has since
expanded to supplying equipment
to the Democratic Republic of the
Congo (DRC).