Modern Mining May 2015

COMPANIES

proving to be an incredibly successful diamond mine and, secondly, the contract gives us a good foothold in Botswana, a country where we would like to expand our operations.” Equipment deployed for the contract includes a brand new fleet of Terex TR100 rigid dump trucks. These were supplied to MCC by Eqstra Heavy Equipment, a sister company with the Eqstra group, which distributes Terex’s rigid and articulated trucks in Southern Africa. Historically, MCC has not ventured much further north in Africa than Zambia but Colling says this could change. “We are prepared to work all over Africa if the right projects present themselves and we’re already looking at oppor- tunities in various countries,” he observes. “Certainly, I’m very receptive to the idea of geographical diversification and, of course, it’s particularly attractive if we can earn in US dol- lars. If we have to go further afield than Africa, we’ll do that as well – although I suspect that such a move is some way off. The point though is that an international contract mining model can work well, as I saw during my years with Leighton when I was responsible for projects spread over a vast geographic area.” Withmining still in the depths of a downturn,

Colling has taken over at MCC at a difficult time but he is unfazed by market conditions. “I’ve been in the contract mining game long enough to know that it is highly cyclical,” he says. “If you ask me how long the present depressed con- ditions are likely to persist, I’ve no real idea. It could be 12 months or 24 months or even lon- ger – who knows? But I’m absolutely confident that in the meantime MCC can run profitably and even grow. We’re already starting to see the effects of the changes we’ve initiated and MCC

One of MCC’s Cat 793s hauls a load at the Benga coal mine near Tete.

should very soon be back to its best.” Report by Arthur Tassell, photos (unless otherwise acknowledged) courtesy of MCC