Modern Mining June 2020

of Demaneng iron ore and certain Industrial Minerals operations early in the lockdown period. The re- opening was done giving the utmost care to ensure the safety and well-being of all employees.” At the time of writing, Van Heerden said Demaneng was producing at 100%, in line with the country’s Alert Level 4 regulations at the time. “We are at 100% production and the volumes are good. We are, however, a little bit constrained on the logis- tics side of the business with hiccups on the trains and the harbour,” he says. Looking ahead, Van Heerden says while the company is in a good financial position, the effects of COVID-19 will be felt in the current financial year. “Realistically we will not be able to maintain the per- formance levels that we had in the past financial year. But, relatively speaking, our business is well geared to weather the storm,” he says. “We have an incredible team of people who give it their all and an extremely strong balance sheet. As we speak, we effectively have no debt, which will leave the business in a healthy position even after the lockdown. I am quite bullish about the future. We will obviously show some short-term pain during the first half, but I am confident we will see a very good improvement towards the end of the financial year,” he concludes. 

Afrimat grew its volumes at Demaneng by 34% year-on-year in the past financial year.

Key takeaways  Afrimat, recently released full-year results for the year ended 29 February 2020, reporting a record set of results for the second-year running, with group revenue up 11,4% to R3,3-billion and an operating profit margin of 18%  The Bulk Commodities segment delivered an exceptional contribution to the results, producing 31,4% of the revenue, compared with 28,9% the previous year  To further grow its Bulk Commodities segment, Afrimat is looking at an opportunity to acquire additional iron ore assets in Northern Cape  The intended acquisition of the remaining shares of Unicorn accords well with the Afrimat’s diversification strategy and will add to the composition of the company’s Bulk Commodities segment