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COVER STORY
September 2015
MODERN MINING
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to DRA’s ‘partnering’ approach with not only its
clients but also its own sub-contractors. “Since
DRA was formed we’ve never been involved
in any litigation with either our clients or our
contractors,” he says. “All projects have their
problems but we would rather work construc-
tively to solve them as opposed to relying on the
small print in contracts and resorting to lawyers.
We see no merit in an adversarial approach.”
With many projects – such as Kibali, New
Liberty, the Karowe upgrade in Botswana,
and, soon, in South Africa, the Maseve plati-
num mine – exiting DRA’s project pipeline, the
hunt is on for new work to refill the order book.
Notwithstanding the downturn, this effort has
already met with considerable success with
DRA picking up some key contracts over the
past year to 18 months, including Phase 1 of
Sierra Rutile’s Gangama mineral sands project
in Sierra Leone (DRA’s first project in the coun-
try), the Yaramoko gold project of Roxgold in
Burkina Faso (in joint venture with Group Five),
the Asanko gold mine in Ghana and, in South
Africa, Ivanhoe’s potentially huge Platreef PGM
project near Mokopane. Other bids are currently
being adjudicated and De Bruin is confident
that some contract awards will result. As he
points out, DRA has historically been success-
ful on more than half of the bids it puts in.
He also mentions that DRA has a healthy
workload of study work around Africa – typical
examples being the pre-feasibility on Platinum
Group Metals’ Waterberg project in South Africa
and the DFS for Triton Minerals’ Mozambique
graphite project. Clearly, there is a good chance
that assignments of this type could eventually
carry over into the project execution phase.
Finally, what of DRA’s activities outside
Africa? De Bruin responds by saying that DRA
needs to be – and increasingly is – a global
player, with offices in Canada, the US, Australia
(in both Perth and Brisbane), China and India.
“While we’ve always been a group that has
grown organically, our thrust into overseas mar-
kets is necessarily driven by acquisition – it’s
the only way to build up a footprint fast. The
key acquisition so far has been the Taggart deal,
concluded last year, which has given us criti-
cal mass in North America. We’re also forming
partnerships where appropriate, an example
being our recent link-up with Australian mine
planning consultancy Orelogy. The main effect
of this will be to strengthen our relationship
with Australian miners and explorers working
in Africa rather than our Australian business
so we probably still need to make at least one
acquisition if we’re to establish ourselves as a
really significant participant in the Australian
market,” he says.
“Generally, our philosophy is that the
increasing size of projects and the globalisation
of mining means that there is very little future
in being a mid-tier regional player – you either
need to find a niche and occupy it or go big and
go international. We’ve chosen the latter option
and we’re well on our way to becoming the first
South African engineering group and ‘project
house’ to have a truly global standing and the
ability to compete internationally.”
Report by Arthur Tassell
The concentrator at Plati-
num Group Metals’ WBJV
Project 1 mine (also known
as Maseve) in South Africa’s
Western Bushveld. DRA is
responsible for the surface
infrastructure, including the
processing plant, at the new
mine, which is now nearly
complete (photo: Platinum
Group Metals).