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COVER STORY
18
MODERN MINING
September 2015
D
e Bruin stresses that min-
ing will remain DRA’s core
market providing the bulk
of its turnover and rev-
enue but says the group
needs to continue diversifying as min-
ing activity reduces around the globe.
“If we rely purely on mining, there is
little chance that we can continue to
grow as vigorously as we have in recent
years,” he says. “So at the moment we
are pushing into markets such as water,
energy and infrastructure, even agriculture
and general industry. The skills we have are
easily deployed to these sectors. We’ve had
one company ask us recently why we can’t de-
sign and build a grease plant for them and the
answer is that there’s no reason in the world
why not. After all, a facility of this type is not
too different from a minerals processing plant.
“As regards infrastructure, we’ve already
been doing work of this type in the mining field
for years – in fact, around R3 billion’s worth
over the past decade alone. Our strategy now
will be to take this infrastructural expertise and
apply it more widely. We’ve put a great deal
of effort into understanding the infrastructure
space and our conclusion is that the challenges
are not so much technical in nature – it’s easy
enough to build projects of this type – but
rather relate to issues such as financing and the
legal and contractual arrangements adopted for
project execution and operation. So we’ve been
talking to players around the world, including
funding agencies and equipment suppliers, to
develop what we believe is a very compelling
infrastructure offering.”
In the water field, DRA intends pursuing an
With the global commodities ‘supercycle’ now winding down as China’s growth rate
slows, companies providing services to the mining industry are having to face a future
in which the high levels of mining activity of the past decade are unlikely to be seen
again – at least in the short to medium term. DRA, one of South Africa’s leading en-
gineering and project management groups, is busy adapting to the ‘new normal’ by
– amongst other strategies – expanding the range of markets it targets to reduce its
dependence on mining, as Johann de Bruin, a Director of the company, recently
explained to
Modern Mining
.
DRA’s Johann de Bruin.
DRA is the EPCM contractor for phase one of the Asanko gold mine of Asanko Gold Inc, presently under construction in Ghana. Phase 1 will be a low cost, long
life mine producing 190 000 ounces of gold per annum at steady state, with – according to Asanko Gold – the first gold pour on track for Q1 2016 (photo:
Asanko Gold).
DRA diversifies into newmarkets