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MODERN MINING
March 2017
feature
MINING CONTRACTING
W
hite says that the situa-
tion just nine months ago
was very different. “At that
point we were busy with
our budgets and forecasts
and we did not believe that we would see any
growth for another two years,” he says. “We
had a significant portion of our open-cut min-
ing fleet standing and our thinking was that
we would have to batten down the hatches,
focus internally on ensuring that we were
running as efficiently as possible and wait
patiently for a revival. That revival has come
much sooner than expected and we now have
most of our fleet deployed out in the field. In
effect, our business – at least in the open-cut
space – has been normalised.”
The caveat about the ‘open-cut space’ is
an important one as Aveng Mining has two
business units – Aveng Moolmans, which spe-
cialises in open-cut mining contracting, and
Aveng Shafts & Underground, which focuses
on underground mining contracting and shaft
sinking. “The uplift we’ve seen is mainly in
open-cut mining and the recent contracts
we’ve won have all been awarded to Aveng
Moolmans,” notes White. “The underground
mining contracting market remains very
subdued and there are not too many opportu-
nities around in the short term. Aveng Shafts
& Underground, however, is a great business
with a great future and we are confident that
it is only a matter of time before we see the
mining houses investing, once again, in new
underground mines and projects.”
He points out that Aveng Shafts &
New contracts
give a shot in
Aveng Moolmans
equipment at work in the
Klipbankfontein pit at
Kumba Iron Ore’s Kolomela
mine near Postmasburg in
the Northern Cape.
Stuart White, MD of Aveng
Mining.
Over the past three years most open-cut and underground mining contractors
operating in South Africa – and indeed the wider African region – have struggled to
maintain turnover and profits in the face of major cutbacks in spending by mining
companies. But the tide could be turning, if the experience of Aveng Mining, the
mining contracting arm of the JSE-listed Aveng Group, is anything to go by. As
Stuart White, Managing Director of Aveng Mining points out, several new
awards have transformed the outlook for the business. He recently spoke to
Modern Mining’s
Arthur Tassell.