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COVER STORY
October 2015
MODERN MINING
21
One of MCC’s Cat D10 dozers
at a platinummine in the
Western Bushveld.
possibility that we could sell our fleet to the cli-
ent. On the whole, we’ve changed our thinking
on Mozambique. A few months ago, we saw it
as a problem, now we’re increasingly looking at
it as an opportunity.”
Giving a quick round-up of MCC’s other con-
tracts, Colling says that within South Africa
the company is working at the Mogalakwena
platinummine near Mokopane, the Pilanesberg
platinum mine in North-West Province, the
Dorstfontein East colliery in Mpumalanga, the
Tharisa chrome mine near Marikana and the
Aganang limestone mine near Lichtenburg.
In Botswana, it was appointed as the mining
contractor at the Karowe diamond mine in the
Orapa area at the end of last year.
“All the contracts are going well although at
Mogalakwena the contract is nearing comple-
tion,” says Colling. “We are obviously talking
to Anglo American Platinum in respect of
an extension at Mogalakwena, where we are
responsible for about 10 to 12 % of the mine’s
volumes, and are naturally hopeful that the
relationship will continue.”
Colling also mentions that MCC has two
significant leasing contracts with Rockwell
Diamonds, which have seen MCC equip-
ment being deployed to the Saxendrift and
Remhoogte properties on the Middle Orange,
while in Namibia it is renting machines to
Vedanta’s Skorpion zinc mine. “The leasing/
rental business offers us opportunities to maxi-
mise the use of our assets and we’re in the
process of extending our leasing and rental ser-
vices to both Zambia and the DRC,” he says.
“Rental and leasing contracts provide an excel-
lent entry point to markets and we see this side
of the business growing.”
Looking ahead, Colling predicts the mar-
ket could well get tougher before it gets better.
“There are a handful of prospects on the hori-
zon – the new Boikarabelo coal mine in the
Waterberg is one example – but generally there
is a dearth of new work. So a major part of our
strategy is to work with existing clients to see
whether there are opportunities for increasing
volumes – after all, the best customers are the
ones we are already working for.
“Geographically, we’re open to working all
over Africa but the African mining market is
also not very buoyant at the moment,” he con-
tinues. “Even further afield, we are increasingly
interested in India, which is a huge economy.
Certainly, there is scope for us to get involved
there, initially perhaps just on the basis of sell-
ing our skill set rather than taking machines
over. Geographical diversification, however, is
probably still some way off. In the meantime,
we have to work with the Southern African
market as we find it and we’re doing this quite
successfully. Our order book has grown over
the past few months and I’m confident that
we can continue to make progress despite the
headwinds that we’re undoubtedly facing due
to the commodities slump.”