Modern Mining February 2023

COVER STORY

In line with its vision to be the premier mining contractor in Africa, Moolmans has entered into a new five-year contract with long standing client, Tshipi é Ntle. Moolmans enters new five-year manganese

M oolmans’ relationship with the mining com pany first began in October 2011. The initial five-year contract was a ‘Greenfields’ oppor tunity, with Moolmans establishing the entire open cut operation to provide a full mining service for overburden and manganese ore. Since then, there have been many changes to the market, which saw the contract renewed and revised in line with prevailing financial and operating conditions in the mining industry. Moolmans is again providing a full mining service to South Africa’s biggest exporter of manganese, which includes bush clearing, top soil stripping, drilling and blasting, loading and haul of ore and waste at the Tshipi Borwa mine in the Kalahari Manganese Field (KMF) in the Northern Cape. “The renewal of this contract is testament to the value-added relationships we have with our cus tomers and confirms our reputation in the industry for exceptional reliability and performance,” says Jerome Govender, Moolmans’ Managing Director. “We are delighted that we will continue to play a significant part in the future of the world’s largest manganese-bearing region.” The Tshipi Borwa mine is an open-cast mine that operates through drill-and-blast and load-and-haul mining techniques. The contractor-operator model has resulted in the mine becoming one of the low est-cost manganese ore exporters globally and has enabled a flexibly scaled production process that

can respond to manganese ore price volatilities and market conditions. This contract award will result in significant investment in equipment, people, processes, and systems. It is firmly aligned with the mining contrac tor’s aspirations to be the leader in mining solutions and signifies a key strategic milestone for Moolmans, which is actively selecting and entering into long term and commercially viable contracts to deliver on this vision. Moolmans, the South African based contract min ing subsidiary of the Aveng group, has been known to operate one of the largest and most diverse fleets of mining equipment in Africa to suit various opera tions and client requirements. Also, the company is

8  MODERN MINING  February 2023