Modern Mining Marchh 2017

feature MINING CONTRACTING Aveng Moolmans equipment at work in the Klipbankfontein pit at Kumba Iron Ore’s Kolomela mine near Postmasburg in the Northern Cape. Stuart White, MD of Aveng Mining.

New contracts give a shot in Over the past three years most open-cut and underground mining contractors operating in South Africa – and indeed the wider African region – have struggled to maintain turnover and profits in the face of major cutbacks in spending by mining companies. But the tide could be turning, if the experience of Aveng Mining, the mining contracting arm of the JSE-listed Aveng Group, is anything to go by. As Stuart White, Managing Director of Aveng Mining points out, several new awards have transformed the outlook for the business. He recently spoke to Modern Mining’s Arthur Tassell.

W hite says that the situa- tion just nine months ago was very different. “At that point we were busy with our budgets and forecasts and we did not believe that we would see any growth for another two years,” he says. “We had a significant portion of our open-cut min- ing fleet standing and our thinking was that we would have to batten down the hatches, focus internally on ensuring that we were running as efficiently as possible and wait patiently for a revival. That revival has come much sooner than expected and we now have most of our fleet deployed out in the field. In effect, our business – at least in the open-cut space – has been normalised.” The caveat about the ‘open-cut space’ is

an important one as Aveng Mining has two business units – Aveng Moolmans, which spe- cialises in open-cut mining contracting, and Aveng Shafts & Underground, which focuses on underground mining contracting and shaft sinking. “The uplift we’ve seen is mainly in open-cut mining and the recent contracts we’ve won have all been awarded to Aveng Moolmans,” notes White. “The underground mining contracting market remains very subdued and there are not too many opportu- nities around in the short term. Aveng Shafts & Underground, however, is a great business with a great future and we are confident that it is only a matter of time before we see the mining houses investing, once again, in new underground mines and projects.” He points out that Aveng Shafts &

34  MODERN MINING  March 2017