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March 2015
MODERN MINING
41
SURFACE MINING
CONTRACTING
feature
Moolmans and Shafts & Underground to merge
As this article was being written, Aveng was in the process of consolidating
Aveng Moolmans and Aveng Mining Shafts & Underground. “These two
business units were clustered together under the Aveng Mining banner
in 2012, the rationale being that they were both involved in mining con-
tracting,”explainsWhite.“A full integration of the two businesses, however,
never took place and they each continued to carry their own overheads
and operate more or less independently of each other. Aveng has now de-
cided to fully merge the two entities, so that they share a common man-
agement, operate under a single brand and share central services.”
The combined entity will be a formidable player in mining contract-
ing, with the two business units having contributed R6,5 billion in rev-
enue (12 % of the total) to the Aveng Group’s overall revenue in the year
to 30 June 2014. Of this R6,5 billion, Aveng Moolmans was responsible
for R4,7 billion. The combined net operating earnings for the year were
R529 million.
White will act as MD of the new combined mining business unit. As of
this writing, the name under which it will operate had not been finalised.
that assesses the client profile and the project
profile. If these are right, then we’re not too
concerned about the specific country. We have
huge experience of Africa and are confident
that we can work successfully anywhere on
the continent.” He adds that Aveng Moolmans
may in the future look beyond Africa. “I think
it would be a natural evolution for us to take
the business beyond Africa within, say, the next
five years. The areas we are most likely to target
are the Middle East, South America and the CIS
region of Central Asia.”
Discussing Aveng Moolmans’ strategy in
Africa, White emphasises that the company
does not have the normal contracting mindset.
“Most open-pit mining contractors will move
into a country and then move out again as soon
as their contract is finished,” he explains. “By
contrast, we commit to a country. Our goal is to
build a sustainable business and we back our-
selves that we’ll extend the business beyond
the normal three or five years for which most
contracts run. We believe this is the only way
to operate successfully in Africa. We also local-
ise our operations. When we start a contract
our rule is that up to 10 % of the workforce
might be brought in from South Africa to get
things established. But it’s also our rule to bring
this figure to below 5 % as soon as possible.
In the case of our Langer Heinrich operation in
Namibia, the entire workforce, including senior
management, is 100 % Namibian.”
On the subject of safety, White says Aveng
Moolmans has many achievements under its
belt and that its record compares favourably
with its peers. “Having said this, we still have
our blemishes and this is not acceptable,” he
observes. “We have all the right systems and
processes in place but the challenge is to make
safety awareness a part of our DNA. We work at
this constantly and we’ve made very significant
progress over the years but we can’t let up –
ensuring high safety standards is an on-going
process that can never be relaxed. It will con-
tinue to be top of our agenda for as long as we
operate.”
Very close to safety in importance is training
and Aveng Moolmans believes that it has world
class systems and programmes in place, which
are MQA accredited in South Africa, and carry
accreditation by local training authorities in
certain of Aveng Moolmans’ other countries of
operation. Says White: “I won’t go into all the
details of our training initiatives, which could
be tedious, but suffice it to say that one of the
keys to contracting success is to have high qual-
ity operators backed by first-rate technicians
and mechanics. We can take someone who has
One of Aveng Moolmans’
Cat 789D mining trucks.
These 181 tonne (200 ton)
payload machines are the
biggest trucks that the
company operates.
never before so much as seen a big mining truck
and turn him – or, increasingly, her – into an
operator in 240 hours. Many of our sites, inci-
dentally, have sophisticated mining equipment
simulators and our goal is to have these on all
our contracts.”
Finally, what of the prognosis for mining?
“The short answer is that no one really knows,”
White responds. “Around 18 months ago, we
were predicting an uptick in late 2015 going on
2016, and we’ve now put that back a year. But
no downturn lasts forever. In the meantime the
task of Aveng Moolmans’ management team is
to ensure that we’re in good shape when the
upturn comes and ready to take advantage of
all opportunities and this – as I’ve said – is pre-
cisely what we’re doing.”
Photos courtesy of Aveng Moolmans