Modern Mining May 2018

COMPANIES

company – then known as M&J Engineering – was acquired by his father Werner in 1984. “M&J was quite small and concentrated on modular underground coal mining equipment. The focus changed when my father – who is semi-retired but still involved with the com- pany – was asked to design and supply a chute. The chute business became progressively more important after that first installation and today we are a specialist chute manufacturer – the other product lines we had are long gone.” He adds that the name ‘Weba’ – which first described the chute system but is now the com- pany’s name as well – was derived from the first letters of his father’s first and last names. Baller says that Weba’s early chute systems were designed and developed manually. “We made templates and models,” he explains. “Today we use CAD and DEM. Alwin Nienaber, our Technical Director, was responsible for bringing CAD expertise into the business and he continues to ensure that our technology remains up to date. Our manufacturing facili- ties here at our Wadeville premises are state of the art and include CNC plasma-cutting machines.” Baller and Nienaber, who both joined the business in the 1990s, now manage a company which employs 138 people in South Africa (and which has a level 4 B-BBEE rating). Weba also has an extensive international footprint, with wholly owned subsidiaries in Perth, Australia, and Santiago, Chile, as well as agents in another 12 countries. The company’s chutes – with capacities ranging from 40 t/h to up to 12 000 t/h – have been installed in 18 coun- tries and the Weba name is now well known in most of the world’s major mining regions. Recent overseas successes have included the first installation in Chile – at an opencast cop- per mine – and a further three chutes in a repeat order for a Turkish steel mill. Notwithstanding the international success Weba has had, South Africa remains its biggest single market, with nearly 2 800 installations in place. One mine alone – a large iron ore operation in the Northern Cape – has over 260 Weba Chutes supplied over a 10-year period. Outside of South Africa, the biggest installed base of Weba Chutes in Africa is in Botswana, where approximately 340 have been installed, but Zimbabwe, Namibia, Zambia, the DRC and Ghana are also important markets. Commenting on current market conditions, Baller says that Weba’s order pipeline has held up well throughout the mining recession of the past several years. “There’ve been some quiet patches but we are fortunate in that we

Above: Attention to detail during design work ensures successful chute perfor- mance. Left: Weba Chute Systems uses state-of-the-art technological tools such as CAD.

do a great deal of maintenance work which has helped to balance out the periods when new projects have dried up, so we’ve been able to more than hold our own through the down- turn,” he says. “Currently, we see some interesting develop- ments on the horizon. The South Africa market remains relatively subdued but we have a new client lined up in Zambia, we’re expecting our first order from Mozambique, and we see great potential in Zimbabwe, where we have tradi- tionally been strong. Overseas, we’re busy with work in Turkey and the US and we also have some solid enquiries coming out of Canada and Chile. Overall, we’re very positive about pros- pects and are confident that we have some good growth ahead.” Report by Arthur Tassell, photos courtesy of Weba South Africa

May 2018  MODERN MINING  35