Modern Mining November 2016

CONSULTANTS/ PROJECT HOUSES

Duke says that key starting points in evaluat- ing any project are the orebody itself and the markets or potential markets for the mineral resource. “You need to have the best under- standing of what you cannot change before concerning yourself with how the resource can be mined and processed for sale,” he elaborates. “Moreover, you also need to have a thorough understanding of the market for your end prod- uct – where it’s going, who’s buying it, are they going to continue buying it. All these points might seem self-evident but it’s surprising how often they are addressed inadequately.” He also stresses the importance of metal- lurgy. “At one point in my career, and like many other mining engineers, I underrated the impor- tance of including metallurgists in our mix. No longer. They are absolutely critical – in a sense, it’s about packaging whatever you get from the orebody for the demands of the market.” Despite Duke’s passion for Sound Mining, the day-to-day management of the company is now in the hands of his colleague, Malcolm Lotriet. Explaining this, Duke says the arrange- ment has freed him up to devote more of his time to a relatively new venture – an inde- pendent Mauritian-based company known as Project Management and Design Engineers Limited (PMDE). “PMDE was founded in 2012 but only now

in virtually every metal or mineral from gold, coal, platinum, copper and diamonds at one end of the spectrum through to tungsten, tan- talite, vermiculite and rare earths at the other.” Geographically, the company has worked throughout the world, including the Americas, Europe and the Middle East. “We don’t set ourselves any arbitrary boundaries in terms of our geographical reach though in practice we tend to work within our time zone,” notes Duke. “Being based in Africa, most of our work comes from the continent and we’ve worked on projects in most of Africa’s mining areas. In the past as much as two-thirds of our turnover was derived from outside of South Africa but more recently the focus has shifted back to South Africa.” The skills that Sound Mining offers cover exactly what would be expected from a mining consultancy and encompass both underground and open-pit operations. They include explo- ration and conceptual work, designs and feasibility studies, due diligence reports, CPRs, valuations and operational planning support to mines. While there is broad expertise employed permanently within Sound Mining, the com- pany also makes use of associates who are called in on a sub-consultancy basis to supple- ment in-house skills when necessary. Explaining Sound Mining’s philosophy,

A prospect in Limpopo Province.

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November 2016  MODERN MINING  35