Modern Mining February 2020

EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW

Tuomo Niskanen – appointed head of Metso’s Africa market area at the start of the year – is encouraged by prospects of a buoyant African mining sector in 2020 and beyond, particularly driven by precious metals. In a one-on-one with Munesu Shoko , he lays out his growth plans for Metso in Africa, which will largely hinge on customer centricity and leveraging the gains of new technologies. Metso’s new head for Africa

P reviously vice president for Mining Africa at Metso, Tuomo Niskanen took the reins as head of Metso’s Africa Market Area on January 1 this year, replacing Qasim Abrahams, who vacated the position at the end of 2019. Niskanen, a mining engineer with over 38 years’ experience in mining and minerals pro- cessing, has previously worked for various leading companies, including Sandvik, Outotec, Alstom and General Electric, among others. In his previous roles, he has worked across vari- ous regions of the world, including the Far East, Europe and even Africa. In fact, he was part of the Metso team that established the company’s business for the first time in Africa back in the 1990s. He was also deployed back to South Africa between 2006 and 2009 during the mining boom. He believes that his two previous stints in Africa have better prepared him for the realities of doing business on the conti- nent, and he will leverage his market knowledge to further drive Metso’s business in Africa. Niskanen says the Africa Market Area is of greater significance to Metso, as demonstrated by the com- pany’s decision to establish it as an independent

market area within Metso at the start of 2019. He believes the potential on the mining side of the busi- ness is massive. Taking advantage of the growth potential of the mining market, one of Niskanen’s immediate priorities is to increase the Africa’s con- tribution to Metso’s overall business. “Africa currently contributes about 10% to Metso’s business. Based on prospects of growth on the con- tinent and the plans I have in place for the business, I would like to see the African business taking a quan- tum leap in the next few years to contribute about 15% to Metso’s overall business,” he declares. Key target areas To drive the envisaged growth, Niskanen will lever- age Metso’s values. Central to the approach will be driving the success of the customer. “The aim is to drive our customers’ performance, productivity and efficiency, which in turn allows them to run success- ful mining operations,” he says. The second value of significance is innovation, identifying how Metso can help African miners improve their businesses. Speaking of innovation, Niskasen believes the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Tuomo Niskanen, new head of Metso’s Africa market area.

Metso is a strong player in the mineral processing market in Africa.

36  MODERN MINING  February 2020