Modern Mining September 2015

COVER STORY

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

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

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).

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