Modern Mining March 2019

DIAMOND MINING MINING CONTRACTING

Despite its parent Basil Read Ltd being in business rescue, Basil Read Mining is trading profitably and has a very healthy order book with contracts running not just in South Africa but also Lesotho, Namibia and Botswana. This point was em- phasised to Modern Mining’s Arthur Tassell when he recently spoke with Basil Read Mining’s MD, Nathan Williams. According to Williams, the company is eager to spread its footprint beyond the Southern African region to other parts of Africa, West Africa in particular. Basil Read Mining keen to

B asil Read Mining (BRM) pro- vides the full range of sur- face contract mining services including drilling and blast- ing, loading and hauling, in-pit water management, rehabilitation, and mine scheduling and planning. The company operates in both hard and soft rock and is also active in the quarrying industry through its subsidiary Blasting & Excavating (B&E), which works at 29 quarries in South Af- rica. Between them, BRM and B&E (which con- stitute the bulk of the mining division of Basil Read Ltd) have approximately 1 800 employ- ees and operate a fleet of plant and equipment with a replacement value of over R2 billion. “We’re a good business which is currently running very well,” says Williams. “Some

prospective customers and suppliers note that Basil Read Ltd is in business rescue and assume that the problems it has experienced also extend to BRM. Nothing could be further from the truth. In 2017, the mining division had a revenue of R1,8 billion and generated a profit of R76 million. We’ve actually performed extremely well in what is a very difficult mar- ket for all open-pit mining contractors.” Basil Read Ltd, one of the iconic names of South Africa’s construction industry with a history dating back to the early 1950s, has been in business rescue since June last year. Like many of its peers in the construction sec- tor, it has suffered lean times in recent years and in its 2017 financial year (to 31 December 2017) recorded a loss of R1 billion on revenues totalling R4,5 billion. Throughout the difficult

Nathan Williams.

Basil Read Mining machines working at a diamond mining contract in Botswana.

38  MODERN MINING  March 2019