Modern Quarrying

10 / 44

8 MODERN QUARRYING October - November 2015
The relocation of Atlas Copco South
Africa’s Cape Town branch to larger, pur-
pose-built premises at No 10 Manhattan
Street, Airport Industria, combines under
one roof the previously separately-
housed business areas of Compressor
Technique and Construction Technique’s
Road Construction Equipment (RCE) for
improved efficiencies and customer ser-
vice through shared synergies.
BME Namibia is building its local skills,
technical capacity and supply chain to
consolidate and grow its position in
Namibia’s mining sector, according to
Albie Visser, BME’s general manager for
South Africa and Namibia.
While there was a slow-down in
the Namibian mining industry in 2014,
exciting new projects such as B2Gold’s
Otjikoto gold mine and Weatherly’s
Tschudi copper mine have recently come
on line, lifting the outlook for the sector.
Among other projects in the pipeline are
Swakop Uranium’s Husab mine, expected
to produce by end-2016.
“We have built a presence in Namibia
since 1994 based on our confidence in
the country’s people and its minerals,”
says Visser. “Our team of 37 staff mem-
bers at our Swakopmund head office
are all Namibians, with the training and
Atlas Copco relocates CT branch
Local economic development is key
The Cape Town branch, originally
established to represent Atlas Copco and
Dynapac Equipment, attended to new
equipment sales and aftermarket support
of customers in the Western Cape. It con-
sisted of two separate sites with trading
premises for the Compressor Technique
business based in Montague Gardens and
the RCE business located in Stikland, which
later moved to Blackheath in Q4 2009.
“The positive growth experienced
by both operations over the past few
years necessitated larger premises,” states
Neville Marthinussen and Wayne Jacobs,
respective Atlas Copco business line
managers for Construction Technique,
Dynapac RCE and Compressor Technique
Service Division. “It made sound busi-
ness sense to purpose-build a facility that
meets the requirements of both opera-
tions and that will allow for future growth.
experience necessary to run a high-per-
forming and independent operation.”
The office serves customers in the
copper, gold, uranium and zinc sectors,
as well as smaller quarries and road
aggregate providers – supplying them
with cutting-edge blasting expertise and
products. BME is a leading supplier of bulk
emulsion explosives in Africa, as well as
initiating systems, electronic detonators,
and blast planning software.
“Our priority in Namibia has been to
contribute in every way possible to local
economic development, giving us the
resources and network we need to oper-
ate independently within the country,” he
says. This has meant empowering local
people to lead and manage the business,
and promoting local enterprise through
the business’s supply chain.
“We are also working on a partner-
ship which will see the launching of a
Namibian-owned transport company to
serve some of our logistics requirements
between Swakopmund and our Namibian
customers,” Visser says, adding that it is
vital for the empowerment of local busi-
ness people in Namibia that service pro-
viders develop their ability to compete
with counterparts in South Africa and
other neighbouring markets.
Sharing single premises also reduces oper-
ational costs for the two businesses.”
Jacobs and Marthinussen agree that
training is an essential part of the Cape
Town branch’s future success. “We must
keep abreast of the latest technologies to
ensure sustainable provision of world-class
quality product solutions mirrored by after-
sales service support.” The branch enjoys
the full support of the Atlas Copco organ-
isations in Johannesburg and Belgium.
Looking to the future, Marthinussen
says that the markets in general continue
to plateau with only the Eastern Cape
(EC) showing slight positive growth. He
expects this to increase significantly with
the northern EC road rebuild already start-
ing to take off and the imminent N2 EC
rebuild andWestern Cape N1/N2 re-align-
ment and rebuild which is due 2016/2017.
AROUND THE INDUSTRY
Atlas Copco’s Cape Town branch has relocated to
purpose-built premises in Airport Industria.
“The stability of Namibia’s society and
economy means that operational risk
is very low – so we believe that there is
plenty of scope for local businesses to
become more competitive,” he says.
Government is in the process of
developing the New Equitable Economic
Empowerment Framework (NEEEF) to
ensure that Namibian resources are
shared in an equitable and sustainable
way. The policy also wants to see the
implementation of measurable policies
of redressing and redistributing wealth. It
is hoped that NEEEF will help remove bar-
riers of socio-economic advancement to
enable previously disadvantaged persons
to access productive assets and opportu-
nities of empowerment.
In another development, BME is fur-
ther raising the technology bar in Namibia
by establishing a technical division at its
Swakopmund office. The unit will have a
special focus on introducing BME’s highly
specialised mobile testing vehicle, used
for auditing purposes on its drilling and
blasting sites.
Two graduates have already been
employed and are in the process of being
trained to take up positions in the techni-
cal division.
Albie Visser,
BME’s GM for
South Africa
and Namibia.