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September 2016
MODERN MINING
31
COMPANIES
feather in our cap. The materials
handling system has been com-
missioned and we’re now all but
complete with our contract, with
just a handful of our people still
on site.”
Still in the mining field,
ELBCON has just started an
assignment at Assmang’s Black
Rock Mine Operations (BRMO)
in the Northern Cape which will
see it constructing a Rapid Train
Loading Station (RTLS), an asso-
ciated feed conveyor, as well as
two product stackers. Black Rock
Mine Operations is operated
by Assmang Limited, which is
jointly owned by Assore Limited
and African Rainbow Minerals
Limited.
ELBCON has not confined
its activities to South Africa
and has operated as far north as
Sierra Leone where it refurbished facilities at
the port of Pepel (for the Tonkolili iron ore
project). Closer to ‘home’, it has completed
projects in Zambia (notably at Ndola Lime on
the Copperbelt), the DRC (for a mining client)
and Mozambique (where it refurbished and
upgraded materials handling facilities at the
Matola coal terminal). Its only cross-border
contract currently is at a diamond mine in
Botswana but Budd says that within a matter
of weeks the company will be returning to the
DRC to work on a tailings project.
While ELBCON identifies as a construction
company, Budd points out that it is not in the
business of directly executing civils and building
work. “Our core expertise lies in project super-
vision and site management and we ‘buy in’ the
civils and building work we need,” he explains.
“Having said this, we are a fully-fledged struc-
tural, mechanical and piping contractor and
within the group we have sister companies
with related skills. B&W Instrumentation and
Electrical – very prominent in the E&I field –
was purchased by the ELB Group in 2014 while,
in the same year, we also launched a new busi-
ness unit, ELB Conveyor Maintenance, which
handles all aspects of conveyor installation,
commissioning and maintenance. We work
closely with both these companies and their
skills complement our own.”
Regarding the scope of work that ELBCON
can handle, Budd says that contracts can range
in value from less than a hundred thousand
rand to several hundred million rand on some
of the bigger mining and power generation
projects. “Typically, the smaller contracts will
be assignments such as scheduled plant shut-
downs, preventative maintenance projects or
repairs following equipment breakdowns,” he
states. “This type of work – which can last as
little as a day or as long as several weeks – is
one of our specialties and we provide a full
service which includes assistance with the
planning and scheduling of outages.
“Within our workforce, we have a core of 40
people,” says Budd. “They constitute a young,
competitive, hands-on team – there’s a huge
amount of energy. We believe in allowing our
managers to exercise their initiative and this is
promoted by the fact that we have a relatively
flat reporting structure. There are no barriers to
fast decision-making.
“ELBCON now has a substantial fleet of
vehicles and heavy equipment which includes
trucks, rough-terrain hydraulic cranes, forklifts,
generators, welding equipment and LDVs,” he
says. “We also, incidentally, have a substantial
investment in IT systems and make use of state-
of-the-art software for estimating and costing
projects and for site management.”
Finally, and discussing current conditions
in the marketplace, Budd acknowledges that
the recession in mining has not left ELBCON
unscathed. “We’re facing the same challenges
as everyone else operating in the mining sector
and our order book, as a result, is not where we
would like it to be. But we’ve avoided retrench-
ing people and have maintained our team
intact. We’re also, as a company, very optimis-
tic about the future,” he concludes.
Above:
Construction at
Black Rock Mine Operations
in the Northern Cape.
Left:
Celebrating one
million LTI-free hours at
Medupi.
“Our core
expertise lies
in project
supervision and
site management
and we ‘buy in’
the civils and
building work
we need.”