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MODERN QUARRYING
October - November 2015
centred in the north west of the country, which is
a considerable distance from the ports. “So proper
linking up to these ports for ore export purposes
creates those opportunities.”
How do you commit when the projects have
not kicked off,
MQ
asks? The only tangible project
that is currently running is the Tete-Ncala railway
with the Tete coalfields, which is also experiencing
world economic pressure at the moment because
of the low coal prices. The railway lines are not
finished and the mining houses are experiencing
financial difficulties.
“Coal is not the most popular commodity at the
moment and with Brent crude at optimum low lev-
els, we sense that there is also reluctance for 100%
commitment. But the LNG project is still due to
happen in terms of its broad spectrum time lines.
The developers declare that they will be ready for
initial exports in 2020 and based on that, we are
slap bang right and ready.”
Afrimat has taken the approach to start reason-
ably small with local partnerships and has gone in
with a medium-sized investment. “Together, that
gives us a reasonable footprint,” Odendaal says.
“We have to be cautious because should the world
economy fall flat and none of these projects come
to fruition, we have to contain our expenditure in
terms of money invested. So, we are playing the
game of understanding when to strike and when
to invest, and to be nimble and flexible enough to
react quickly should these opportunities arise.”
The company has invested in several local part-
nerships that are forged but not practised at this
stage. “This is so that we can call on these local
South African partnerships, some being competi-
tors or suppliers in some instances, whom we have
worked with for many years. We have rallied these
troops together and are ready to call on them. We
have adopted this strategy to not engage in all of
these projects alone. Our part of it could poten-
tially be in excess of a billion rand in value add and
bearing in mind that Afrimat is only a 1,5-billion
rand company, one has to forge certain partner-
ships to mitigate this risk.”
He says these are exciting times because
Afrimat has moved out of its comfort zone.
In terms of the quarry, the company has part-
nered with Ayleek Industries, a local Pemba-based
quarry operator. “This is a really small operation
and we have upgraded the plant with components
from Afrimat, and developed this into a 150 t/hour
crushing unit, which is up and running and trading
commercially. We have duplicated a similar 250 t/
hour plant which is due for commissioning shortly.
Ultimately in Pemba, we will soon have a 400 t/
hour capacity,” Odendaal confirms.
Afrimat has sourced a quality country manager
ON THE
COVER
Afrimat has established
an up-and-running
operation at Pemba,
which is south of the
main LNG project in
Northern Mozambique.
Photographed at the
Mitande site, from left:
Issa Bernado Neves Issa;
Leonard Moine; Sam
van den Berg; Johan
Roux; and Rikus Nortje.
Afrimat has contracted
a mobile unit up to
Mitande where it has a
contract to supply some
280 000 t of railway
ballast stone for Mota
Engil.
From left: Gomes
Manuel, logistics
coordinator; Nico
Botha, production
manager at Pemba;
and Kelly Shanahan,
administrative support.