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COMPANIES
proving to be an incredibly successful diamond
mine and, secondly, the contract gives us a
good foothold in Botswana, a country where we
would like to expand our operations.”
Equipment deployed for the contract
includes a brand new fleet of Terex TR100 rigid
dump trucks. These were supplied to MCC by
Eqstra Heavy Equipment, a sister company
with the Eqstra group, which distributes Terex’s
rigid and articulated trucks in Southern Africa.
Historically, MCC has not ventured much
further north in Africa than Zambia but Colling
says this could change. “We are prepared to
work all over Africa if the right projects present
themselves and we’re already looking at oppor-
tunities in various countries,” he observes.
“Certainly, I’m very receptive to the idea of
geographical diversification and, of course, it’s
particularly attractive if we can earn in US dol-
lars. If we have to go further afield than Africa,
we’ll do that as well – although I suspect that
such a move is some way off. The point though
is that an international contract mining model
can work well, as I saw during my years with
Leighton when I was responsible for projects
spread over a vast geographic area.”
Withmining still in the depths of a downturn,
Colling has taken over at MCC at a difficult time
but he is unfazed by market conditions. “I’ve
been in the contract mining game long enough
to know that it is highly cyclical,” he says. “If
you ask me how long the present depressed con-
ditions are likely to persist, I’ve no real idea. It
could be 12 months or 24 months or even lon-
ger – who knows? But I’m absolutely confident
that in the meantime MCC can run profitably
and even grow. We’re already starting to see the
effects of the changes we’ve initiated and MCC
should very soon be back to its best.”
Report by Arthur Tassell, photos (unless otherwise
acknowledged) courtesy of MCC
One of MCC’s Cat 793s hauls
a load at the Benga coal
mine near Tete.