Modern Mining May 2015

COMPANIES

Sedgman’s South African office – located in Centurion, near Pretoria and servicing the African continent – has streamlined its activities and is now focusing on the ‘Create’ phase of Sedgman’s ‘Create, Build, Operate’ business model. The implications of the changes were recently explained to Modern Mining by Mark Berger, Sedgman’s newly appointed Manager Business and Projects, and three of his senior colleagues – Steve van Barneveld, Regional Development Consultant, Kent van Twest, Group Manager Engineering, and Danie Coetzee, Group Manager Project Delivery. Sedgman streamlines in Africa

however, it has diversified from coal into the metals and minerals sector to give it more flex- ibility in coping with current market condi- tions in mining. Like all engineering groups serving the min- ing industry, Sedgman has been challenged by the current downturn in the global resources industry leading to the organisation revisiting its global strategy and structure. The measures have been effective and have contributed to the group returning to being a major player in delivering EPC projects globally. According to Berger, the change in focus of the South African office forms part of a global streamlining of Sedgman’s activities. “The idea is for certain of the regional operations to retain strong core skills but not a full standalone capa- bility,” he says. “This means that when projects move into the execution phase, the resources required will be delivered by Sedgman glob- ally rather than by the regional office. Typically this might mean that the detailed engineering for a plant in Africa, for example, would be undertaken by our Santiago office, which is our low-cost engineering centre. From the cli- ents’ perspective, nothing really changes as the whole process is seamless. From Sedgman’s perspective, however, it allows a much more

H eadquartered in Brisbane, Aus- tralia, and listed on the ASX, Sedgman provides engineer- ing and project solutions to the global resources industry with its services ranging from concept to defini- tive feasibility studies and design through to project execution, commissioning and opera- tions. Established in 1979 by John Sedgman, it founded its reputation on the design and construction of coal handling and preparation plants (CHPPs) and is now regarded as one of the global leaders in this field. In recent years,

34  MODERN MINING  May 2015